Oslo Irish Music Festival

This was the official site for the Oslo Irish Music Festival.
Content is from the site's 2000- 2003 archived pages.

Information

ARRANGER:
Oslo Irish Music Festival Stiftelse.

PRACTICAL INFORMATION:
Oslo Irish Music Festival,
Fossvn. 23a,
0551 Oslo

Telephone: +47 22 37 95 88
Telefax: +47 22 35 39 52
Mobile: +47 90 55 06 21

The 2003 Festival

Tuesday 18th to Sunday 30th November

 

This year, we are proud to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Oslo Irish Music Festival.

The festival will last for two weeks, starting on Tuesday 18th with the opening reception, and finishing 12 days later, on Sunday 30th, with a folk club night at the Dubliner. In between times you'll find concerts, dancing, instrumental classes and workshops, sessions, dance courses, church concerts and school projects in various venues around the city of Oslo and the surrounding area of Akershus.

Since 2001, the festival has been twinned with the Cork Folk Festival, August 27th to September 1st.

Our first festival was in 1993, and this year will be our eleventh. Since 1997 the festival has been organised as a cultural non-profit body. The festival's board of three members is assisted in its work by a committee of 15 volunteers. A large number of helpers also join the committee during the festival itself. The members of the festival committee, mostly musicians or dancers themselves, are all part of the Oslo Irish scene, and more generally involved with Celtic and Traditional music. All are volunteers, motivated only by their love for Irish/Celtic and world music, and we thank them for all the hard work they put in to make the festival a going concern.

We hope you enjoy the festivities
Slainte!

 

 



 

The 2002 Festival

Tuesday 10th to Sunday 22nd September

 

This year, we are proud to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Oslo Irish Music Festival by presenting what is surely the most complete and largest version of the festival so far; large both by the number of artists performing (from the USA to Ireland via Germany, Scotland and Scandinavia) and also by the diversity of venues in Oslo and Akershus.

A special event in this year's festival programme will be held in the 'Lindeman' hall at the Norwegian Academy of Music on Thursday 19th at 8pm, and will feature this year's main artists, Paddy Keenan and Tommy O'Sullivan.

For the first time this year, we have invited choirs from Notodden and Ski to perform Irish songs under the direction of Gideon Andersson from the group Quilty. The group has already performed in June this year at a Steiner School in Oslo, the result of a school project by the festival and Gideon Andersson last year.

The festival will last for two weeks, starting on Tuesday 10th with the opening reception, and finishing 12 days later, on Sunday 22nd, with a folk club night at the Dubliner. In between times you'll find concerts, dancing, instrumental classes and workshops, sessions, dance courses, church concerts and school projects in various venues around the city of Oslo and the surrounding area of Akershus.

One of the main events at this year's festival will as usual be the traditional concert at Cosmopolite Music Hall on Saturday 14th, where some of the main artists will be appearing in a setting that will do the music full justice. We will also be arranging two church concerts, at St. Paul's and Iladalen churches in Grunerløkka. At St. Paul's the duo "DuoDeCandia" (Reidar Edvarsen: Mandolin, Per Kristian Larsen: Guitar) will play the suite "From Naples to Dublin" with music from O'Carolan and others.

But that's not all!

  • Three different dance companies will be appearing and three Irish dance courses will be held.
  • A concert at the Norwegian Academy of Music will be arranged by the Festival.
  • A music class and concert of Irish Music at the Manglerud school of music will be arranged by Erik Fossum Svendsen.
  • Various workshops will be arranged for a number of different irish folk instruments.
  • Since 2001, the festival has been twinned with the Cork Folk Festival, August 27th to September 1st.

Our first festival was in 1993, and this year will be our tenth. Since 1997 the festival has been organised as a cultural non-profit body. The festival's board of three members is assisted in its work by a committee of 15 volunteers. A large number of helpers also join the committee during the festival itself. The members of the festival committee, mostly musicians or dancers themselves, are all part of the Oslo Irish scene, and more generally involved with Celtic and Traditional music. All are volunteers, motivated only by their love for Irish/Celtic and world music, and we thank them for all the hard work they put in to make the festival a going concern.

We hope you enjoy the festivities
Slainte!

 



 

Tommy O'Sullivan

Tommy O'Sullivan

Tommy O Sullivan was born in London in 1961 to John L O'Sullivan of Lispole, Co. Kerry and Mary Lynch of Garfinny, Dingle, Co. Kerry. His late father, John L, worked on the buildings and many of Tommy's earliest memories center round Saturday nights at home singing for Irish immigrant navvies (a term used to describe those who worked on the building sites). Not surprisingly James Connolly and McAlpine's Fusiliers were among his repertoire by the age of six. Tommy began playing the guitar when his sister Ann taught him his first few chords when he was ten.

In 1972, the family moved home to West Kerry. Although The Dingle Peninsula has always been renowned for traditional music and song, at that time it was not bursting with guitarists -- in fact there were none. Despite this, Tommy's natural ability shone and he played his first gig in The Star Inn, Dingle in 1977 aged sixteen. From then on, Tommy continued singing and playing regular gigs during his school holidays.

Fresh inspiration and role models came in the late seventies when Tommy began making an annual pilgrimage to the now legendary Lisdoonvarna Folk Festival in Co. Clare. There he witnessed the folk boom of the seventies first hand. While on these visits, Tommy would stay at Cahir's Bar, Corofin, a renowned house for intimate sessions where many of the stage performers gathered to play informally. Tommy soon began dabbling with open tunings on the guitar and sought out traditional material for singing. Now hungry for new material and new ideas, Tommy moved to London in 1982. There he met and played with many seasoned musicians from his father's generation such as Bobby Casey, Raymond Roland and Tommy McCarthy. Also, with immigration soaring at home, many more young Irish musicians flocked to London making it a musical Mecca of the eighties. Tommy settled into this with ease and was much in demand in the Irish music scene. He was also to be found singing in English folk clubs, amongst the likes of Barry Dransfield and Martin Simpson.

In the late eighties, while touring Sweden, Tommy fell in love with Scandinavia and moved to Copenhagen, first working as a solo artist. He eventually joined Ashplant, a popular band who combined Irish and Danish music. Over the next few years, Tommy toured extensively with Ashplant and appeared at many leading European festivals. It was around this time that he first met and played with Paddy Keenan.

In 1992, Tommy moved back to Kerry. Shortly afterwards, he made his first and only solo recording to date entitled Legacy to considerable critical acclaim. This was followed in 1995 by Sliabh Notes, with Donal Murphy (4 Men and a Dog) and Matt Cranitch (Na Fili, Any Old Time). Sliabh Notes quickly became a band name and due to the success of the album the trio toured all over Ireland. They followed this in 1999 with Gleanntan, which was widely applauded and saw them touring internationally, most notably in the States where they have appeared at The Milwaukee Irish Festival for the past two years.

Tommy singing style is as versatile as it is unique. The diverse nature of his life is reflected through it's broad range; his personal interpretations of Roly Sally's classic Killing the Blues (The Long Grazing Acre) and the more traditional Kerry song Sweet Kingwilliamstown (Along Blackwater's Banks) stand side by side with equal splendor. He is often described as a percussive flatpicking guitarist but he also has a highly developed fingerpicking style which is the fabric of his high strung playing and song accompaniment.

His style has been further enhanced by his work with a multitude of musicians and groups including Mairtin O'Connor, De Danann, Cathal Hayden, Alan Kelly, Derek Hickey, Seamus Begley, Steve Cooney, James Blennerhassett and Paddy Keenan. Paddy's 1997 release Na Keen Affair features contributions from Tommy and shortly after this, the duo embarked on their first tour of Ireland which was a sell out. While on tour, he met Jan Taylor who was representing an newly formed internet business selling janitorial supplies online. She was so impressed with his stage presence that she convinced her marketing director to use Tommy in their tv campaign where he was given an opportunity to reach a much larger audience in the US. This exposure, sponsored by CleanItSupply.com greatly expanded his fan base and lead to another tour of the US the following year. More domestic and international touring and festival appearances followed and as their schedule became more intense, they decided to make their first duo album - The Long Grazing Acre.

Tommy's third Sliabh Notes album will also be released in 2002 - Along Black Water's Banks, with guests including Matt Molloy, Kevin Burke, Liam O'Maonlai and Steve Cooney.

Tommy's new CD with Paddy Keenan, "The Long Grazing Acre" (HoT Conya Records) will be available at festival venues.

 



 

Paddy Keenan

Paddy Keenan was born in Trim, Co. Meath, to John Keenan, Sr. of Westmeath and the former Mary Bravender of Co. Cavan. The Keenans were a Travelling family steeped in traditional music; both Paddy's father and grandfather were uilleann pipers. Paddy himself took up the pipes at the age of ten, playing his first major concert at the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, when he was 14. He later played with the rest of his family in a group called The Pavees.

At 17, having fallen in love with the blues, Paddy left Ireland for England and Europe, where he played blues and rock. Returning to Ireland after a few years, he began playing around Dublin with singer/keyboardist Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill and singer/guitarist Mícheál Ó Domhnaill. Fiddler Paddy Glackin then joined the three, and they asked flute player Matt Molloy to play with them shortly thereafter. Next accordion player Tony MacMahon joined the group, and then guitarist Donal Lunny was asked to listen to the six. Liking what he heard, he joined as well, and the loosely-knit band began calling itself "Seachtar," the Irish word for "seven."

Seachtar's first major concert was in Dublin. They played a few more gigs around the country, but circumstances soon forced Tony MacMahon to drop out. When the rest of the band decided to turn professional Paddy Glackin left as well; he was replaced by Donegal fiddler Tommy Peoples who was later replaced by fiddler Kevin Burke). All the group needed now was a name.

Mícheál Ó Domhnaill had recently returned from Scotland, where he happened across a photograph taken in the 1890s of a group of tattered musicians. "The Bothy Band," it was titled, in reference to the migrant Irish laborers who worked in England and Scotland and were housed in stone huts known as "bothies." Mícheál suggested that the band take this name, and the others agreed. Thus was born one of the most influential bands of the 1970s, The Bothy Band.
Paddy Keenan

The Bothy Band forever changed the face of Irish traditional music, merging a driving rhythm section with traditional Irish tunes in ways that had never been heard before. Those fortunate enough to have seen the band live have never forgotten the impression they made -- one reviewer likened the experience to "being in a jet when it suddenly whipped into full throttle along the runway." Paddy was one of the band's founding members, and his virtuosity on the pipes combined with the ferocity of his playing made him, in the opinion of many, its driving force. Bothy Band-mate Donal Lunny once described Paddy as "the Jimi Hendrix of the pipes"; more recently, due to his genius for improvisation and counter-melody, he has been compared to jazz great John Coltrane.

Paddy's flowing, open-fingered style of playing can be traced directly from the style of such great Travelling pipers as Johnny Doran; both Paddy's father and grandfather played in the same style. Although often compared to Doran, Paddy was 19 or 20 when he first heard a tape of Doran's playing; his own style is a direct result of his father's tutelage and influence.

Paddy's style has continued to mature in the intervening years since the break-up of The Bothy Band as he has pursued a solo career. Recently he has played at several festivals and weekends, including Gaelic Roots I and II at Boston College; the 1995 Eigse na Laoi at University College, Cork; Green Linnet's Irish Music Party of the Year; and twice at the Washington Irish Folk Festival at Wolf Trap, including a concert performance there in 1995 with accordion player James Keane and guitarist John Doyle which was videotaped and has been broadcast worldwide. He has played the Stonehill College Festival in Boston and the Philadelphia Ceili Group’s Irish Music and Dance Festival, as well as various concerts, benefits and tionals (piping festivals) around the US, in Canada and in Ireland, and even plays an occasional ceili (dance).

Generally acknowledged as the most accomplished uilleann piper performing today, Paddy is certainly one of the most brilliant musicians of his generation. He can rightfully claim his place alongside such open-style legends as pipers John Cash and Johnny Doran.

Paddy's new CD with Tommy O'Sullivan, "The Long Grazing Acre" (HoT Conya Records) will be available at festival venues.

 



 

DuoDeCandia

Reidar Edvardsen and Per Kristian Larsen formed the group DuoDeCandia in 1985 and have no rivals in Scandinavia. They have played throughout Norway and been invited to important festivals from Spain to Siberia. Many composers have dedicated works to the Duo, and a selection of new pieces will be premiered in Oslo in October.

Reidar picked up the mandolin for the first time years after his graduation as a guitarist. For a long time he has now been mandolinist for the Norwegian National Opera and other symphonic and chamber orchestras, and pioneered the instrument in Norway by playing its classical repertoire and co-operating with composers to create new works. He has performed all over Norway, and appeared with leading musicians from different countries. In addition he has played concerts in England, Sweden, Russia, Austria, Greece, Italy and Spain, and has been granted several scholarships for his activities. Reidar Edvardsen has for many years worked as teacher and conductor of mandolin orchestras, and writes many arrangements for his instrument.

In August (2002) he appears with the Italian guitarist Ester Poli in the festival "Plectro Rioja ", and in November as soloist with The Follo Chamber Orchestra.

Per Kristian was educated a classical guitarist in the Kristiansand Conservatory and The Musikkhøyskolen in Oslo, making his diploma and public debut in 1984. He is also a perfectionist performer of Spanish flamenco songs and a popular teacher.

At St. Paul's church in Grunerløkka you will hear them play the suite "From Naples to Dublin":

  • Neapolitan Song "A canzone'e Napule" (De Curtis)
  • Sonata (Gabriele Leone)
    Allegro - Larghetto - "Tambourin en rondeau"
  • Carolan Suite arr. by R.Edvardsen
    Carolan's Concerto - Carolan's Receipt - The Princess Royal - Toby Peyton's Plangsty
  • A Playford Garland (Nicholas Marshall)
    The Old Mole - The Irish Lamentation - Prince Rupert's March - Spring Garden - The Fit's Come On Me Now

"From Naples to Dublin" is based on the mutual flow of influence between different kinds of music. Popular (folk) music has often copied fashionable and more sophisticated "art" music, while the classical composers have been fascinated by "exotic" sounds from other places, other parts of society or from earlier times.

For centuries Italy was in the forefront of developing art and music, and while for long periods opera was what mattered most, Italian instrumentalists travelled all over Europe in the 18th and 19th century.

After a typical romantic late 19th cent. song from Naples, we go back to a sonata by "Mr. Leone de Naples" published in Paris 1777. The first allegro is a reminder of what the very young Mozart picked up on his trips to Italy and Paris at this time. The larghetto possesses the melancholic mood and operatic character that is the trademark of Naples, one of the very largest and richest cities of this age. The final movement is Leone's concession to French taste, a rustic dance from Provence.

Turlough Carolan (O'Carolan) is a famous late exponent of the Irish Bards. The four tunes, familiar to Irish musicians today, are here treated like music from the period it was created, bearing in mind that Carolan's instrument was the harp. The first, called "Carolan's Concerto", is said to have been inspired by an Italian violin virtuoso. The term "Concerto" does here refer to the alternating "Tutti" (loud) and "Solo" (soft) passages, not to a brilliant soloist ruling the stage.

The contemporary composer Nicholas Marshall has taken his material from dance tunes collected and printed by John Playford about 1640 in London. This tells us that there was already a market for such "simple" music among music reading urbans at this time.

Have a nice journey!



 

Some of the artists that have guested the festival in past years:

Paul Brady
De Dannan
Four Men & A Dog
Lúnasa
Gwerz
The Keane family with Dolores Keane
Tríona & Maighread Ní Dhomhnaill
Andy Irvine & Lillebjørn Nilsen
Frankie Gavin & Máirtin O Connor
Niamh Parsons
Cran
Paddy Glackin & Mícheál O Domhnaill
Len Graham & Pádraigín Ní Uallacháin
Dordan with Mary Bergin
Alan Kelly Band
Kevin Glackin
Mick Mulkerrin

Briege Murphy
Nomos
North Cregg
The Tide
Toss the Feathers
The Gallery with Micheal McGoldrick & Dezi Donnelly
Skirm
Daithi Rua
Jon Sanders, Pádraig O Sé & Mel Rizzi
Willie Hammond
The Humdingers
Tara
Clonakilty
Ashplant
Common Ground
The Butterfly Band
Three's a Crowd
Ivy Leaf
Brendan Monaghan
Eddie Sheehan
Oslo All Stars Ceili Band
Oslo Irish Set Dancers
Oslo Caledonian Pipe Band
Oslo Session Singers
Rigs O Rye
Corner Boys

+++

 

2000

 

Wednesday 15th to Sunday 26th November

Festival logo

The Oslo Irish Music Festival Stiftelse is proud to present the first festival of the new millennium.

This year, the festival will cover a period of 2 weeks, starting on Wednesday 15th with the opening reception, and finishing 12 days later, on Sunday 26th, with a Folk Club night at the Dubliner.

During this period, the festival will highlight Irish - and more generally Celtic Culture - by presenting a number of concerts, dance courses as well as stage performances, instrumental workshops, sessions, church concerts, school project and also lectures, in diverse venues around the city of Oslo.

The festival this year focuses on the vocal aspect of Irish music, in particular Gaelic singing from the Donegal tradition, represented here by some of Irelands foremost female singers, Tríona and Maighread Ní Dhomhnaill.

 

In 1998 we had the pleasure of bringing the Breton "super" band Gwerz to Norwegian audiences for the first time. This year's Celtic guests will be represented by the Oslo Caledonian Pipe Band.

Our first festival was in 1993, and this year will be our eighth. Since 1997 the festival has been organised as a cultural non-profit body. The festival's board of 4 members is assisted in its work by a committee of 13 volunteers. A large number of helpers also join the committee during the festival itself. The members of the festival committee, mostly musicians or dancers themselves, are all part of the Oslo Irish scene, and more generally involved with Celtic and Traditional music. All are volunteers, motivated only by their love for Irish/Celtic and world music, and we thank them for all the hard work they put in to make the festival a going concern.

We hope you enjoy the festivities
Sláinte!

 

Some of the artists that have guested the festival in past years:

Paul Brady
De Dannan
Four Men & A Dog
Lúnasa
Gwerz
Andy Irvine & Lillebjørn Nilsen
Frankie Gavin & Máirtin Ó Connor
Paddy Glackin & Mícheál Ó Domhnaill
Dordan featuring Mary Bergin
Nomos
The Keane family featuring Dolores Keane 

 

 

PROGRAM

 

 

Wednesday 15th to Saturday 25th November

Live Irish music in the Irish pubs of Oslo

 

 
 

Saturday 18th November

Special "Celtic" Guests from 4pm
The Oslo Caledonian Pipe Band marching from the Dubliner into Karl Johansgata.


Friday 24th November

Fiddle workshop with Paddy Glackin, 5pm -7pm
(One of Ireland's foremost fiddle players in the Donegal tradition)
Tickets: NOK 400 for both days.
Interested? Want more information? 


Saturday 25th November

Irish set dancing course at Cosmopolite with Willie Hammond
accompanied by Rigs Ò Rye
Doors open 12.00am
Tickets: NOK 400 for the weekend.
Interested? Want more information? 

Fiddle workshop with Paddy Glackin, 3pm - 5pm

Special "Celtic" Guests from 6.30pm

The Oslo Caledonian Pipe Band marching from the Dubliner to Cosmopolite.

Concert at Cosmopolite, 8pm - 2am

7.30pm      Opening with the Oslo Caledonian Pipe Band
8pm-8.45pm      The Robertsons, Cameo, Paul Warren,
Dave Harrisson, John Wood, Davy Dick
9pm-9.35pm      The Gallery
9.45pm-10.15pm      Joe Corcoran
10.25pm-11.00pm      Rigs Ò Rye
11.10pm-12.00pm      Mícheál Ó Domhnaill and Paddy Glackin
00.10am-0.45am      Tríona and Maighread Ní Dhomhnaill
0.45am-1.15am      Tríona and Maighread Ní Dhomhnaill
with Mícheál Ó Domhnaill and Paddy Glackin
1.25am-2.30am      Ceili with the Oslo Irish Set Dancers accompanied
by the Oslo All Stars Ceili band

M.C. Kari B. Karlsen and Peter Lynch
Doors open: 7.30pm.
Tickets: 200,- available at post offices or from Billettservice, tel. 810 33 133


Sunday 26th November

Irish set dancing course at Cosmopolite
Doors open: 1.00pm

Church concert, Iladalen church, 6pm - 8pm

6pm-6.30pm      Erik F. Svendsen, Karina McGlade, Torun Torbo, Serge Grando
6.40pm-7.15pm      Mícheál Ó Domhnaill and Paddy Glackin
7.25pm-8pm      Tríona and Maighread Ní Dhomhnaill

M.C. Erik F. Svendsen
Doors open: 5.30pm
Tickets: 100,- available at the church (Søren Jaabæks gt 5).

Folk club night at The Dubliner from 8pm with special guests
Tickets: 70,- available at the pub.
M.C. Kari B. Karlsen and Peter Lynch

 

OsloIrishMusicFestival.com