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Workshops on the
pipes will be presented on Saturday and Sunday. Workshops by
local masters in fiddle, flute, tin whistle, banjo, guitar,
singing and the Irish language will also be available.
Teachers of international renown will participate, with
the highpoint of the weekend being a concert on Saturday,
February 13, 2010. Featured
performers will include special guest pipers from Ireland, Kevin
Rowsome and Denis Brooks.
The focus of the
Tionól will be a celebration of the Leo
Rowsome style of piping.
Leo was one of the greatest uilleann pipers and
pipe-makers of the 20th century.
His influence on the playing and the making of the
instrument is unsurpassed.
Leo’s
grandson, fifth generation piper, Kevin Rowsome, along with
renowned Rowsome exponent Denis Brooks, represent a tangible
link with this powerhouse of piping.
About
the Uilleann pipes:
Uilleann pipes are the characteristic national bagpipe of
Ireland. The bag is
inflated with bellows strapped around the waist and the right
arm. These pipes are distinguished by their sweet tone and wide
range of notes — the chanter has a range of two full octaves,
including sharps and flats — together with the unique blend of
chanter, drones, and "regulators."
The regulators are equipped with closed keys which can be
opened by the piper's wrist action enabling the piper to play
simple chords, giving a rhythmic and harmonic accompaniment as
needed.
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 Kevin Rowsome:
Kevin Rowsome started playing the uilleann pipes at the age of six years.
He took his first lessons from his grandfather Leo and, later,
from his father, Leon. During his teenage years Kevin
played clarinet and saxophone with the Artane Boys band.
Kevin
gained public recognition when he won first prize at the
Oireachtas festival, and is widely regarded as one of today's
finest uilleann pipers.
Kevin
has gained vast experience as a performer and instructor of the
pipes, performing extensively and lecturing and instructing
at a number of Irish music festivals throughout Europe and USA.
As
well as his own debut recording "The Rowsome
Tradition", five generations of uilleann piping, Kevin has
recorded and performed with various artists.
Kevin
has a number of musical compositions to his name. He gained
wide recognition as a composer when he won the prestigious
Cuisle Ceoil an Bhlascaoid (the musical pulse of the Blasket
islands) musical composing competition in 2006.
www.kevinrowsome.com
 Denis
Brooks:
Denis started out playing the mouth-blown war pipes as a
teenager in the Seattle boys pipe band and soon transitioned to
uilleann pipes, doing so during a most unlikely period.
Denis managed to get a set of Kennedy pipes from Cork City, and
began his uilleann piping excursion.
Moving
to California in the late 70’s, Denis and a few other started
the San Francisco Pipers’ Club.
His tutelage helped to grow the Irish music community in
San Francisco and saw uilleann piping become a regular part of
sessions and performances there.
He left San Francisco in 1980 and returned to Seattle
where he organized another Pipers’ Club.
He soon had several piping students who were inspired by
Denis’s mastery of the pipes.
His Rowsome style of playing, with judicious use of
regulators, left virtually everyone who heard him in awe. Soon fiddlers, guitar players, flutists, concertina players started
to assemble for sessions and gigs around the city. His wealth of
knowledge regarding the history of Irish Pipes as well as the
origins of much of the music has kept many spellbound after the
weekly lessons. With relentless effort Denis kept the
Pipers’ Club moving forward.
Gathering information, transcribing interviews, and
cataloging upcoming events, in 1981 Denis published the first
club newsletter, “The Pipers’ Review.
It has continued to be published on a regular basis to
this day.
Unfortunately
for Seattle, Denis moved to Ireland in the late 80’s. There is
no question that Denis was a major driving force behind the
growing traditional Irish music scene in Seattle.
All you have to do is follow him around during one of his
visits to see the throngs of people that come to reminisce and
just talk with him again.
He
continues to perform in Ireland and is a frequent honored guest
at major piping events.
 Tom
Creegan:
Tom had been vitally involved in the Seattle Irish music
scene since the early 1980’s.
He is a past president of the Seattle Irish Pipers Club as well
as the current editor of the piping newsletter, “The Pipers’
Review”. Tom is a
native of Dublin where he learned the uilleann pipes at the
famed Pipers’ Club on Thomas Street founded by Leo Rowsome.
Tom eventually moved to Seattle and played for many years with the Pacific
Northwest band, The Suffering Gaels. The Gaels were
a mainstay at Irish events in Seattle, and their tours of
Japan were a highlight for the band members. Currently Tom performs with the band
Crumac.
In
February 2009 Tom was invited to play at the inaugural Leo
Rowsome Annual Commemoration at Na Píobairí Uilleann, the
Dublin HQ of piping.
He has many years of teaching experience, first at the Thomas
Street Pipers’ Club, and later in Seattle with Cumann na bPíobairí
(Irish Pipers’ Club), as well as at many music festivals and
schools.
Tom’s D set was
made by Leo Rowsome in the mid 50’s for Ivan Donaldson, a
fisheries biologist in Stevenson, Washington. There
the set languished for many years before being rescued by the
pipes and reed guru, Ted Anderson of California. A few
years later (and very fortunately for Tom) Ted
let him have the set, and they returned to the
suitable Pacific Northwest climate.
Seattle Metropolitan Magazine called Tom a “local
master of uilleann pipes – the only under arm sound you can
make without being scolded.” www.crumac.com
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 Randal
Bays: Randal Bays
is an American musician whose mastery of the intricate art of
Irish fiddle playing has earned him an international reputation
among fans of Irish music.
He’s known as an exciting and dynamic performer whose
music grows out of a deep respect for the ancient wellsprings of
the Irish tradition.
Randal
was born in Indiana, where he started on trumpet at age eight,
and then took up the guitar at age twelve.
Randal attended two years of music school in Indiana,
where he studied music theory and composition before emigrating
to the Pacific Northwest at the age of twenty. He’s made his
home there ever since, and now lives on Whidbey Island, near
Seattle.
Randal took up the
fiddle in 1978 and started teaching himself to play Irish
traditional music. He
was influenced by many of the Irish musicians in the Northwest,
including Kevin Burke, Michael Beglan, Michéal O’Domhnaill,
and many more who passed through, including James Kelly, Joe
Burke, etc. He
eventually met the Clare fiddler Martin Hayes in Seattle and
agreed to provide guitar accompaniment for Martin’s landmark
debut recording in 1993. This
led to the first of many trips to Ireland, where Randal’s
fiddling found great acceptance among fans of traditional music.
In recent years Randal has toured and recorded with many of the
finest Irish musicians, including James Keane and Daithi Sproule
(in the band FINGAL), James Kelly,
John Williams, Martin Hayes, Tony McManus, Aine Meenaghan,
Roger Landes. His most recent recording, “Dig
With It” (2009) features the brilliant Canadian guitarist
Dave Marshall, with whom Randal now tours in North American and
Canada.
Randal Bays is a dedicated and thoughtful teacher of Irish
fiddling, often in demand for workshops and music camps, and is
a co-founder of the Friday Harbor Irish Music Camp. He’s
also composed original scores for several award-winning films
and documentaries. www.randalbays.com
 Leo
MacNamara: Leo
hails from Scariff in County Clare, a widely acknowledged
hot-bed of traditional Irish music. He started playing tin whistle
at six years
old and later moved on to the flute. Now he
plays Copeland whistles, Peter Noy flutes, and guitar. His
influences include P.J. Hayes, Paddy Canny, Martin
Woods, Martin Rochford, Christy Barry and Peadar O'Loughlin.
Steeped in the traditional music of his native East Clare, Leo
brings together a broad array of musical influences to produce a
unique style, incorporating a forceful tempo, full of lyrical
touches and the odd flight of fancy. Now living in
Seattle, he is a well known figure on the local and national
scene.
 Dave Cory:
Hailing
from the Bay Area, Dave is a prominent member of the younger
generation of players of Irish music.
He is a respected multi-instrumentalist on tenor banjo,
guitar, tin whistle and bodhran.
Dave is much in demand as a guitar accompanist and a
banjo player. He
has recorded with many of the young superstars of the scene
including the band Providence, Magic Square, Bridgetown,
Eliot Grasso, Johnny B Connolly, and Alissa Schneckenberger.
Dave has also taught at the Lark in the Morning Irish
Music Camp's in Mendocino, CA. When airfare
bargains and good fortune comes his way, Dave enjoys
the vibrant music scene in Galway City, Ireland. www.myspace.com/mrdavecory
 Laura Ploudre: Laura
started singing traditional Irish songs with her
grandmother at an early age. Throughout her school career, she
pursued classical training, singing with the University Chorale
(UW) and the UW Opera Chorus. She also sang with the Seattle
Choral Company for several years.
The past twenty years brought a return to the musical
traditions of her childhood, and Laura began singing, along with
husband Paul, as “McSorley's Reeks” at festivals and in
local pubs. Laura
is inspired by the singing of Joe Heaney, Niamh Parsons, Mairead
Ni Mhaonaigh, Dolores Keane, Mary Black, and Maura O'Connell.
With her crystalline voice
Laura brings exceptional feeling to her performances, tapping
into the deep context of the repertoire.
 Kieran
O'Mahony: Kieran
is a Co Cork native and a member of the Seattle Irish Pipers
Club. He received his undergraduate degree at the
National University of Ireland in Geography and
linguistics. Kieran majored in Education as it relates to
geography teaching. In the early eighties, he relocated to
Seattle with his family to pursue a writing career and also to
climb higher mountains, like Mt Rainier and Mt Baker.
Kieran enjoys teaching the intricacies of his native language,
and his uilleann pipes are usually within arms reach. www.educarepress.com
About
the legendary Leo Rowsome:
 Leo Rowsome (1903 - 1970) was the third
generation of an unbroken line of uilleann pipers. He was a
performer, manufacturer and teacher of the uilleann pipes - the
complete master of his instrument. He devoted his entire life to
the uilleann pipes. He played a massive role in the Irish traditional
music saga and in the ultimate resurgence of traditional Irish
music. He was instrumental in the founding of the international
Irish music organization, Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann, as well
as Na Piobairi Uilleann, the major piping organization.
The name Rowsome will always be synonymous with the music
of Ireland
Leo was
born in Harold’s Cross, Dublin in 1903. His father, William,
realized that his son had the ability to become a talented
musician and craftsman. Constantly watching his father making
and repairing instruments, Leo learned the art of pipe making
and instrument repair. So rapid was his progress at piping that,
in 1919, at the age of sixteen he was appointed teacher of the
uilleann pipes at Dublin’s Municipal School of Music.
He was to teach there for 50 years.
He also taught at Thomas Street Pipers Club.
In
1925, Leo’s father died at the age of fifty-five. Leo
successfully carried on the family business, after completing
his own set of pipes in 1926. The instrument remained an object
of fascination and veneration for countless audiences at home
and abroad.
In the
early 1920’s Leo was the first uilleann piper to perform on
Irish National Radio when he played solo and later in duets with
Frank O’Higgins (fiddle), Micheal O Duinn (fiddle) and Leo’s
brother John (fiddle). Leo’s
"All Ireland Trio" comprised Neilus Cronin, flute,
Seamus O‘Mahony, fiddle and Leo on pipes. He formed his Pipes
Quartet in the mid 1930’s and broadcast regularly throughout
the 1940’s and 1950’s.
Leo was the first Irish artist to perform on the BBC in
1933. He made many
recordings for the Decca, Columbia and HMV labels.
His last commercial recording, CC1 “Ri na bPiobairi”
(King of the Pipers) was made for Claddagh Records in 1966
To commemorate the Centenary of Leo’s birth in
2003, his daughter, Helena, published some of Leo’s original
manuscripts. "The
Leo Rowsome Collection of Irish Music" consists of 428
reels and jigs. Leo’s “Tutor for the Uilleann Pipes”
(1936) is included in that publication. www.esatclear.ie/~rowsome/index.htm |
