The Hills Will Be Alive With Irish Music In July

The Catskills Irish Arts Week Celebrates Its 13th Anniversary

The 13th Annual Catskills Irish Arts Week (July 15-21) celebrates the rich musical heritage of the Irish in New York for a magical week every summer in East Durham in Greene County. The prestigious and highly-regarded summer school in the Irish Alps offers a week-long series of classes on a wide array of instruments used in playing traditional Irish music as well as Irish singing and dancing classes. In addition there are Celtic crafts (jewelry, painting, stone carving and knitting) and a children's program that offer options to non-musicians or parents who wish to take the twice-daily classes.

Over sixty instructors from Ireland and across North America are invited to teach at the CIAW hosted by the M.J. Quill Irish Cultural & Sports Centre, a non-profit organization based in the Weldon House in East Durham dedicated to "Keeping the Tradition Alive". They are some of the finest exponents of traditional music to be found anyway and include such recognizable names as Mary Bergin, Jackie Daly, Matt Cranitch, Brian McNamara, Gearoid O'hAllmhurain, Liz and Yvonne Kane and Catherine McEvoy to name but a few of the 20 teachers coming from Ireland. In addition, well known Irish Americans like Billy McComiskey, Brian and Rose Conway, Mike Rafferty, Mike McHale, Felix and Brendan Dolan and a host of others make up the largest teaching staff for any Irish music school this side of the Atlantic.

The classes meet twice a day and are supplemented with a daily topical music lecture from one of our experts or master instrument class by a Senior musician in the late afternoon (4-5:30 p.m.) plus some practice music sessions in local pubs.

The stellar faculty really gets a chance to shine in the evenings through a variety of programs stoking the night life around East Durham. Each weekday evening (M-F) an evening outdoor concert occurs on the Quill Festival Grounds from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. featuring select teachers each night. Later from 9 p.m. to midnight is an evening Ceili (Social Dance) to some of the best dance musicians to be found anywhere on fine timber floors like the Shamrock House. These events are open to the general public with a $10 admission fee.

Most exciting are the series of nightly music sessions spread round the area roadhouses each night with an assigned crew of teachers which include the increasingly popular "Listening Room Session" with only teachers playing for the audience edification. In addition there will be several CD launches including the first U.S. launch for the new "Tribute to Andy McGann CD" recorded by Brian Conway, Joe Burke and Felix Dolan and also of the new DVD version of the Irish music documentary From Shore To Shore. These jam sessions begin around 10 p.m. and allow the teachers, students and general public to enjoy one another's company in a relaxed social setting and go on until the early hours. In addition, singers gather in Darby Pub's private dining room for the nightly Frank Harte Singing Club in honor of the Dublin Song Collector who once taught in the Catskills and passed away in 2005. (An equally artistic photographic and sound essay for the CIAW 2005 and 2006 weeks by Staff Photographer Timothy H. Raab can be viewed at the www.east-durham.org/irishartsweek site.)

The CIAW concludes with the day-long 17th Annual Irish Traditional Music and Dance festival on Saturday, July 21 from noon until 8 p.m. on the Quill Festival Grounds in East Durham. The Festival this year will be renamed and dedicated to the late New York Fiddling legend, Andy McGann whose influence is still strongly felt in the New York Irish Music community. Tickets will be available for $15 in advance for non-students and $20 at the gate. (Children 12 and under are free).

The CIAW week is open for registration for morning (10-11:30 a.m.) and afternoon (1:30-3 p.m.) classes as outlined at the website www.east-durham.org/irishartsweek where more information can be found as well as a list of accommodations. In addition the Quill Centre can be contacted at 518-634-2286 between the hours of 8: 30 and 5 p.m. or by email to irishartsweek@gmail.com or irishcentre@hughes.net.

The program is produced by Artistic Director Paul Keating (in his 4th year) and is made possible by the generous sponsorship of the following: Bank of Greene County, Greene Tourism, Greene County Council on the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, Culture Ireland, Irish Institute NYC, Shamrock Irish Traditional Music Society and the New York State Music Fund established by the NYS Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors which contributed $98,000 in 2006 and 2007 for the CIAW musical Education Program.