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Paddy O’Brien Is TG4 Gradam Ceoil
Traditional Composer of the Year!
Ireland’s Irish language television station TG4, has honored Offaly-born button accordion icon Paddy O’Brien with its Gradam Ceoil Traditional Composer of the Year Award. Paddy joins a long list of Irish traditional music luminaries with this honor, including previous winners Paddy Fahy, Vincent Broderick, Charlie Lennon, Peadar Ó Riada, and Liz Carroll.
GRADAM CEOIL 2012 PHOTOS ON FACEBOOK
BACKSTAGE AT GRADAM CEOIL 2012 ON FACEBOOK
This year’s Gradam Ceoil recipients range over a wide spectrum of talents. Those honored in the various categories include a legendary Donegal fiddler who also spent most of his life in London, a US-based world-renowned composer and scholar originally from Offaly, an Armagh couple whose life has been spend teaching traditional music in that city and county and two young Gaeltacht musicians from Ring and Muskerry who, while still in their early twenties, have already achieved much in their chosen musical disciplines. The full list of TG4 Gradam Ceoil 2012 recipients is:
- Gradam Ceoil (Musician) – Brian Rooney, fiddle
- Ceoltóir Óg (Young Musician) – Caoimhín Ó Fearghail, uilleann pipes
- Gradam Saoil (Hall of Fame) – Danny Meehan, fiddle
- Cumadóir (Composer) – Paddy O’Brien, button accordion
- Amhránaí (Singer) – Nell Ní Chróinín
- Gradam Aitheantais (Contributions) – Eithne agus Brian Vallely, fiddle and uilleann pipes
Paddy O’Brien Tune Collection—Volume Two Is HERE!
Thanks to everyone who made a lasting contribution to the preservation and perpetuation of Irish traditional music by investing in the Paddy O’Brien Tune Collection—Volume Two. This second volume contains another 500 tunes, including many rare and unusual settings that Paddy learned from an older generation traditional players. In keeping with the tradition, these tunes also have Paddy’s own ineffable ‘stamp.’
Just click here or on ‘Tune Collection’ in the menu above to read more and place your order. Thanks for spreading the word!
Also check the NEWS page for all the latest tour and recording news…
“Paddy’s scholarship also comes through in concerts which are greatly enhanced by his lively stories of tune name origins and yarns about the people from whom (he) collected the tunes. It would be remiss, though, to neglect to mention that Paddy made his reputation through his playing, having the ability to distill the dreams, tragedy, and romance of Ireland, and pour them out in full measure through his accordion.” — The Celtic Society of the Monterey Bay, CA
Paddy O’Brien is regarded by serious players and collectors of Irish traditional music as one of the tradition’s most important repositories; in a career that spans nearly forty years, he has accumulated nearly 4,000 compositions—jigs, reels, hornpipes, airs, and marches, including many rare and unusual tunes. His collection, all the more remarkable because it is stored in his head, is the result of many years of careful listening, diligent practice, and sharing tunes with people for the sake of the music itself.
A product of County Offaly in the midlands of Ireland, Paddy traveled the countryside as a young man to spend time with older players, absorbing music and the accompanying oral tradition. His early influences came from many players he met in sessions, including Joe Delaney and Dan Cleary of Offaly, Donegal fiddler John Doherty, Paddy Fahy, Eddie Kelly from Galway, Frank McCollum of Antrim, Seán Ryan from Tipperary, and Johnny Henry from Mayo, among hosts of others.
In the 1950s and 60s in Ireland, the radio also played a large part in the stimulation of interest in traditional music; he listened diligently to programs like Céilí House, and A Job of Journeywork, produced by Ciarán MacMathúna.
