Talent

Instructors & Performers

Updated 1/20/2025

Rian Biesty
Rian hails from county Roscommon and has been dancing for fifteen years. He learned sean nós dancing by watching the generations before him and going to various workshops throughout Ireland. He places a particular emphasis on developing a unique personal style whilst stay true to tradition. He is an energetic and traditional sean nós dancer and has won multiple All Ireland and Oireachtas titles to date. He has been teaching sean nós for a number of years most recently in Ballynacargy Comhaltas in County Mullingar before moving to the USA for work.

Zohra Coday
Zohra Coday is a concertina player originally from St. Louis, Missouri, now based in New York. Zohra learned Irish music and dance at St. Louis Irish Arts CCE. Growing up she competed in solo, groupai cheoil, and ceili band competitions in the Midwest Fleadh and qualified/competed at the Fleadh Cheoil na Eireann several years in a row. Since starting the concertina, Zohra has attended masterclasses with concertina players such as Jack Talty, Padraig Rynne, Ernestine Healy, Grainne Hambly, Cormac Begley, Brenda Castles, and Liam O'Brien.

In 2019, Zohra attended the University of Limerick to study an MA in Irish Traditional Music Performance, at the Irish World Academy, where she learned under concertina and flute player Tommy Fitzharris. In 2023, Zohra earned the Teastas I DTeagas Ceolta Tire (T.T.C.T), teaching certification for concertina, from Comhaltas.

Outside of teaching, Zohra has performed Irish music in venues located in the U.S., Ireland, Norway, Japan, and India. She also is a feis musician and has played for dance competitions in the U.S. and Europe.

Dave Curley
Dave Curley is one of Ireland’s leading multi-instrumentalists, vocalists and a champion step dancer. Hailing from Co. Galway on the west coast of Ireland, Curley has brought his wealth of talents to the largest of stages in North America and Western Europe.

He has performed at the prestigious Ryman auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee, recorded with Grammy award winners Ron Block, Jeﬀ Taylor and Buddy Greene, and toured with Grammy award winners Moya Brennan of Clannad and Ross Holmes of Mumford and Sons. For 10 years, Curley has worked with the award winning traditional super group, SLIDE and also spent 5 successful years with award winning American Roots band RUNA. More recently, Curley has become an integral member to the new Crannua Collective featuring Moya Brennan, John Doyle, Ashley Davis, Mick McCauley, Eamonn and Cormac DeBarra, Colin Farrell, Cathy Jordan and Gawain Matthews.

Dawn Doherty
Dawn Doherty was born in New York City and raised in Castlebar, County Mayo, Ireland. She developed a love of her Irish culture having been immersed into dancing, music and singing at an early age by her mother Maryanne and father Joe, both with family histories in music.

Dawn is an All-Ireland champion musician and singer in various competitions, including Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann, an Oireachtas, Readoiri, and Scor. Dawn has performed professionally throughout the United States and Europe as both a solo artist and as part of the CCÉ Comhaltas group with the County Mayo, Castlebar Branch.

Pursuing her passion for music and teaching, Dawn received an honors bachelor’s degree in Irish Music and Dance from the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick, Ireland, and an honors master’s degree in music therapy. After graduating, Dawn worked in the Cherry Orchard Hospital, Dublin, as a music therapist for adults with neurological disabilities, and privately with children and adults with special needs. After Dawn moved to New York, she went back to school and graduated from Lehman College in 2016 with a first-class honors Master’s degree in science and education / special education.

In 2019, Dawn was recognized by the Irish Echo for the 40 under 40 awards and was the winner of the People’s Choice Awards. More recently, in October 2022, Dawn was the recipient of the Irish American Community Service Award by The American Irish Association of Westchester, N.Y. In March 2023, the Mayo Society of N.Y. honored Dawn as Mayo Woman of the Year.

Dawn’s music background is extensive, and she hails from a family of musicians. However, she credits her maternal grandmother, Sarah Lynskey who hailed from the Gaeltacht area of Belmullet, County Mayo for introducing her to the sean-nós style of singing. She has mastered this style over the years and has performed annually as a guest artist for the St. Patrick’s Day festivities in St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Her style of singing and playing has seen her invited to play in prestigious venues such as Lincoln Center in New York City and Wolf Trap, Va., with the legendary Country and Western music star Ricky Skaggs.

Since her time in New York, she started the Dawn Doherty Academy of Irish Music and Singing at the Aisling Irish Community Center and more recently, St. Mark’s School in Yonkers, New York. She currently has close to 100 students. Dawn is also the music director of the Aisling Irish Center Ballad Group and co-director of the Aisling Irish Center Ceili Band. Both groups have been a huge success winning the Irish Echo Arts & Culture Awards and appearing on the RTE Late Late Christmas Toy Show in Ireland, and News 12 Christmas Day. The School traveled to Ireland in 2022 for the HOME TO MAYO Finale Concert event and played on stage with world-renowned Irish musicians and singers.

Dawn’s Academy of Irish Music & Singing traveled to Nashville in April 2023 to perform outside on the grounds of the Grand Ole Opry. In June, of 2023 ten of Dawn’s students performed in Carnegie Hall singing with selected choirs from all over the United States.

Dawn is an advocate for promoting Irish language, and her students recently competed in the Irish Language competition at the Mid-Atlantic Fleadh Cheoil in Parsippany.

Her students have had great success since starting her music school, most notably winning All-Ireland medals at the All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil for music and singing in Ireland and most recently, Dawn herself was the 2023 All Ireland Senior Tin Whistle Slow Airs Champion at Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann in Mullingar.

Dawn has truly found a way to merge her love of Irish music and singing and is committed to passing on those skills to the next generation of budding Irish musicians and singers.

Dylan Foley
Dylan Foley is one of the great fiddle players of our time, a 4-time All-Ireland Fiddle Champion, delighting audiences from Lincoln Center to Irish Television channels RTE and TG4. Dylan was recently featured in a Television series "Mr. Mercedes" starring Brendan Gleeson. Foley travelled with Mick Moloney in 2013, to Vietnam as part of Irish Aid. He teaches and performs at the major Irish music summer camps on both sides of the Atlantic. A member of The Yanks, the hot trad band that has been called "the next Irish American dream team,” Dylan is committed to passing on the tradition, as it was graciously passed to him, by the incomparable Rose Flanagan and others. You can hear his passion for the music in the intense drive of in his lively and fluid playing.

“… one of the finest fiddlers in America and certainly the most genial among them…his feel and tone breathtaking… He pulls brilliant music from the fiddle…” Daniel Neely/The Irish Echo

Joanna Hyde
Joanna Hyde is a vibrant and dynamic fiddler and vocalist whose music career has brought her to an array of countries including the US, Canada, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, France, and Iceland, among others. She has performed, recorded, and taught with her brother Iain, her transatlantic trio One for the Foxes, and her husband and musical partner Tadhg Ó Meachair at various concert venues, festivals, and workshops throughout these regions. Likewise, Joanna has toured with an assortment of other artists and projects including Aoife Scott, The Outside Track, Goitse, Kalos, Danceperados of Ireland, and the famed Irish Folk Festival tour of Germany.

A Denver native, Joanna grew up learning a range of musical styles, seeking out opportunities to study Irish music and step dance wherever she could, being particularly influenced by opportunities to study with Liz Carroll, Tommy Peoples, Siobhan Peoples, James Kelly, and Martin Hayes. She graduated from Colorado College with a BA in Music, and was recognized with the Music Department’s top performance and academic awards. In 2011, Joanna was selected as one of ten scholars from across the United States to receive the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation's Graduate Arts Award, with which she pursued an MA in Irish Traditional Music Performance at the University of Limerick’s Irish World Academy of Music and Dance. She also taught for both BA and MA music programs at the University during her time in Limerick, and has taught for almost two decades both privately and at workshops, festivals and summer schools across the US, Canada and Ireland.

In recent years Joanna has performed at many of the top Irish and Celtic music festivals in North America, including the Michigan Irish Music Festival, Milwaukee Irish Fest, Dublin Irish Festival, Goderich Celtic Roots Festival, and Spanish Peaks International Celtic Festival, to name a few. Her trio, One for the Foxes, has been well- received on both sides of the Atlantic, and was awarded “Album of the Year” by the 2021 ACLSR Music Awards, with their music being described as “...subtly yet significantly fresh...[with] gorgeous vocal arrangements” (The Irish Echo). Additionally, Joanna enjoys composing and arranging for a variety of projects, including her role as co-producer of a special arts audio documentary called “On the Wireless”, commissioned by Cork County Council in association with Creative Ireland on the topic of creativity in older age.

Matthew Knight
Matthew Knight is the Irish Studies Librarian and Curator at the University of Notre Dame. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 2021, and his
dissertation, “Our Gaelic Department: The Irish-Language Column in the New York Irish-American,1857-1896,” explores the efforts to preserve and cultivate the Irish language in 19th-century America. His book, Dion Boucicault: The Vampire (1852) and The Phantom (1873) was published in 2024. His research and publications focus on the Irish-American popular press and the transatlantic connections between the immigrants of "Éire Mhór" (Big Ireland) and the Irish cultural revivals in their homeland.

Matt Mulqueen
Matt Mulqueen, a sought-after accompanist from Baltimore, Maryland, grew up immersed in Irish music. He studied piano with Donna Long, earning a Teacher Apprentice Grant from the Maryland Arts Council in 2008. Influenced by Charlie Lennon, Josephine Keegan, and Brendan Dolan.

Matt competed in the All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil with the Old Bay Ceili Band and has performed at venues across the U.S., including The Kennedy Center, Richmond Folk Festival, and Catskills Irish Arts Week. His playing can be heard on several recordings.

Matt leads sessions and plays for ceilis in Baltimore and is an aspiring accordion player.

Laurence Nugent
Laurence Nugent, "One of Irish music’s recognized master musicians,"-Irish Music Magazine.

Laurence is a virtuoso All-Ireland winning champion from county Fermanagh in Northern Ireland, an area of Northern Ireland that is steeped in the traditional arts of music, singing and storytelling. Nugent is a name long associated with fine traditional music in Fermanagh. Laurence's father, the late Sean Nugent, a teacher and composer was at the helm of the All-Ireland winning "The Pride of Erin Ceili Band".

Laurence is a well established performer on the Celtic music scene, he has toured throughout the U.S, Europe, and Japan over the last three decades performing with scores of musicians including: The Chieftains, Liam O Maonlai of the Hothouse Flowers, Kevin Burke, Liz Carroll, Martin Hayes, Dennis Cahill, Paddy Keenan, and Arty McGlynn. He has been a featured performer at major Irish festivals. His playing has been heard extensively on the radio both the US and Ireland.

The three CDs Laurence recorded for the Shanachie record label introduced Laurence to an American audience and met with critical acclaim on both sides of the ocean. He also appears on the Shanachie recording Celtic Tapestry along with top bands like Solas, De Dannan, Clannad, Planxty and Silly Wizard as well as countless other CDs and soundtracks.

His new CD "White Island" is a culmination of recording sessions over the years. The musicians performing with Laurence on "White Island” include: Michael McGoldrick flute, Liz Carroll fiddle, Steve Cooney guitar, Pat McManus guitar and fiddle, Fintan McManus bouzouki, Larry Gray cello and bass, David Curley guitar, Cary Novotny guitar, Matheu Watson guitar, Isaac Alderson flute, Sean Gavin pipes and flute, Jackie Moran percussion, Kyle Turner synthesizer and voice.

For the past 34 years Laurence has lived in Chicago, moving here after living in Philadelphia and New York City.

"At its best, traditional Irish music alternately soothes the soul and inflames one's passion, and few musicians do both as effortlessly as Nugent does.”-Dan Keening, The Chicago Tribune

www.laurencenugent.com

Maureen Mulvey O’Leary
Maureen was born in Toronto but when her father decided to purchase a pub in his hometown of Drumshambo, Co. Leitrim, she along with her six siblings experienced what it was like to grow up as a child in Ireland. At the age of 19, Maureen decided to come back to Toronto and has been living here ever since. Dancing is her passion and she chairs the Comhaltas branches of Toronto and Canada East. Maureen is at the heart of the Irish community in Toronto and this podcast would not have been complete without a chat with her.

Tadhg Ó Meachair
An All-Ireland piano champion and founder-member of the multi-award winning bands Goitse and One for the Foxes, Tadhg Ó Meachair is one of the most sought-after traditional Irish musicians on the circuit today. Tadhg has toured extensively across four continents, performing in prestigious venues ranging from Beijing’s National Centre for the Performing Arts to the famed Milwaukee Irish Fest, and from the Music Crossroads Festival in Zambia to the National Concert Hall of Ireland as guest artist with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra.

Growing up in an Irish-speaking household in Dublin, Tadhg was exposed to traditional music from a young age and performed regularly with céilí bands for dances across Ireland throughout his teens. After graduating with a degree in Irish music from the Irish World Academy at the University of Limerick, Tadhg embarked on a performance career that led him to collaborate with revered Irish performers and bands such as Aoife Clancy, Seán Ó Sé, and Danú, as well as international acts like Les Espoirs de Coronthie and Mafilika. He was also chosen by none other than Dónal Lunny to be the pianist in his Lorg Lunny project which was recorded for an eight-episode TV series and culminated in the formation of the band Ciorras.

Beyond performing, Tadhg is a PhD candidate at Indiana University’s Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology. He presents frequently at universities, music workshops, and festivals across Europe and North America, teaching a variety of topics from traditional melody, ensemble, and accompaniment classes, to a range of cultural presentations on the role of music and folklore in tradition, popular culture, and politics. During his time at IU Bloomington, Tadhg has been a regular in the region’s Contra Dance scene. He continues to work most closely with his wife and musical partner – virtuoso fiddler and singer Joanna Hyde – as a duo, in One for the Foxes, and in other projects, including producing a 5-part audio-documentary series On the Wireless, funded by Creative Ireland and Cork County Council.

Pio Ryan
Hailing from Lorrha, Co. Tipperary, Ireland, Pio Ryan was introduced to the tin whistle and fiddle at an early age under the guidance of his father, John Ryan, himself a renowned whistle player. Pio soon turned to the tenor banjo as his primary instrument, and later expanded his arsenal to include the mandolin and mandola. After years gigging locally with his father, and subsequently winning “Musician of the Year” from Portumna Community School in his final year, he decided to further his interest in traditional music. Pio was accepted into the Ballyfermot College, Dublin to study Irish Professional Music Performance where he graduated in 2002.

After college, Pio transplanted to the US to further his musical career, and was soon playing with some of the best musicians in New York. He spent 9 years teaching music at the Irish Arts Centre in Manhattan, where he was the originator of the Irish Tenor banjo program. People around the music community quickly took notice, and Pio was invited to teach at two of the most prestigious Traditional Irish Music summer schools in the U.S, The Catskills Irish arts week in East Durham and The Swannanoa Gathering in North Carolina.

Pio has had the honour of playing for many luminaries including Former President of Ireland Mary McAleese, Former Governor General Of Australia Sir William Deane and was invited to play for the Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny and the Mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg at Gracie Mansion, the mayor’s official residence. For several years Pio was also a musical guest on Good Morning America to help celebrate St. Patrick’s Day

Whilst in New York Pio played with different bands with styles that ranged from traditional Irish music, folk, bluegrass, and country to rock, Celtic Rock and many more in between. This is where he carved out his unique style and became known as a hugely versatile and adaptable musician who is able to mix it with any band.

Over the past 20 years Pio has toured extensively in Europe, including Germany, The UK, Holland, Belgium, Italy and of course Ireland, where he has played in every county. During his time in the US, Ryan played in many Irish Music festivals and residencies in America, and in 2015 he was asked to play a year long residency for The Walt Disney Company at Raglan Road in Orlando, Florida. It was near the end of this contract that he got the call to ask if he would join world renowned Irish folk group The Fureys! Pio played with the band for over three years, appearing on TNaG and in famous Irish venues including The National Concert Hall, The Helix, Vicar Street, The Cork Opera House, The Wexford Opera House, The Waterfront and the Millennium Forum, among a host of others.

John Whelan
Often hailed as one of the world’s best living Irish button accordion players, seven-time All-Ireland champion John Whelan has been praised for his “humor and high energy blend with impeccable musicianship” by The Wall Street Journal. John embodies the dichotomy of being forward-thinking while still deeply rooted in tradition. He fearlessly explores the creative reaches of music, artistry, and expression while carefully preserving the musical roots from which he originally flourished, and passing those on to the next generation.

John has received the “Musician of the Year” award from the Irish Music Association — twice. He has recorded more than 15 CDs and spent several weeks in the top 10 of the Billboard World Music Charts. He has also appeared on more than 30 albums with other artists, including National Geographic: Ireland. He is celebrated for his duo performances with Grammy Award-winning fiddle player Eileen Ivers, appearing together on stage during the first years of Riverdance, and also for forming the John Whelan Band, which the Cincinnati Enquirer described as playing “music that stretched the boundaries of traditional Celtic.”

In 2023 John resumed a cross-country solo tour he started before the pandemic, which included performances from California to Maine. Highlights include concerts at Club Passim in Boston, MA, The Plough and the Stars in San Francisco, CA and special performances and workshops as part of the 50th Anniversary North American Convention of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann in Washington, D.C. John also led his second tour as part of the Wild Atlantic Music Tours along the West of Ireland in April and was one of the teaching artists at the 2023 Swannanoa Gathering.

John is also a sought-after composer and producer. He has written more than 65 original tunes, many of which have been recorded and performed by artists all over the world. John’s music has been featured on such TV shows as Sex and the City, History’s Mysteries, and History Detectives, and John himself has performed on Late Night With Conan O’Brien and in films including Ronald F. Maxwell’s Gods and Generals (2003) and Ang Lee’s Ride With the Devil (1999).

In 2020 John was to have celebrated 50 years of playing music professionally by touring through all 50 U.S. states. When the pandemic canceled the bulk of his tour plans, John rushed back home to do a free St. Patrick’s Day concert on Facebook Live instead. Throughout the pandemic, John hosted multiple weekly livestream series including “Mondays With John,” a “Taking Time” slow session for beginners, and “Whelan Master Sessions,” which allowed hundreds of sequestered listeners from around the world to listen, learn, and play along in open jam sessions featuring guests including Kevin Crawford and Cillian Vallely of Lúnasa, NEA National Heritage Fellow Joanie Madden and Mirella Murray of Cherish the Ladies, Patrick Mangan and Haley Richardson of Riverdance, renowned fiddler Brian Conway, and more.

John’s discography includes Pride of Wexford (1974), Traditional Music of Ireland (1974), From the Heart (1990, rerelease 2002), and Passage of Time (2013), which features 33 of his original compositions. He released three albums on the Green Linnet Records label: Into the Light, Fresh Takes (1987), and Digging In (1993). He is also one of the best-selling artists on the Narada label, with solo albums including: Celtic Reflections (1996), Celtic Crossroads (1997), Celtic Fire (2001), Celtic Roots (2002), Flirting with the Edge (1998), Come to Dance (1999), and appearances on Celtic Odyssey (1993), and Celtic Legacy (1995). John is currently hard at work recording a new CD set for release in 2024, and is transcribing his original compositions into book form.

Born to Irish parents living in Dunstable, England, John was raised in the vibrant London Irish music scene of the 1970s, learning his craft from such legends as Lucy Farr, Roger Sherlock, Paddy Taylor, Mick O’Connor, and his teacher, Brendan Mulkaire. John is known for being extraordinarily generous with his music and possesses a rare knack for mentoring and teaching, spotting talent in fledgling musicians — no matter the instrument — and helping them grow to their fullest potential.

Jesse Winch
James Terence “Jesse” Winch was born in the Bronx in 1943. As a ten-year-old, Jesse took up the drums and two years later started playing with his father and button-accordion player P.J. Conway for house parties and parish dances. He played in his first ceili band in the late 1950s under the tutelage of the legendary Felix Dolan. While still in High School, Jesse became the regular drummer for the Tenafly/Englewood, New Jersey Ceili Club with his dad, P.J. Conway and Walter Walsh, accordions and Jackie and Peggy Riordan, fiddles. Jesse went on to play drums with the Joe Nellany Band, Paddy Noonan, Paulie Ryan (when Paddy Killoran was in the line-up!) and several other Irish dance bands in New York in the early 1960s, playing such historic venues as the New York City Center, The Yorkville Casino, The Jaeger House, and others.
Jesse is a founding member, with his brother Terry, of the award-winning band Celtic Thunder, and plays regularly in the DC area with the Rambling House Ceil Band, and the Irish Inn Mates.
Thanks to Joanie Madden on her Folk ‘n Irish Cruise, Jesse played with the Swallow’s Tail Ceili Band and the Epic Ceili Band which featured an all-star line-up including Matt Molloy, John Carty, The Kane Sisters, Donal Murphy, Sean Smyth and Catherine McHugh.
Jesse joined his long-time friend, John Whelan as part of John’s “All-Star Ceili Band” for the post-covid Dublin, Ohio Irish Festival in 2022 and subsequent years and for the annual North American Comhaltas Convention in 2023.

Jesse has served on the teaching staff at the Augusta Heritage Center’s Irish Week in Elkins, WV, teaching Bodhran and Ceili Band, a class he created; at the Swannanoa Gathering’s Celtic Week in Asheville, NC; at the Annual Conventions of the North American (NA) Province of Comhaltas; and regularly for the Washington Conservatory of Music at Glen Echo Park, Maryland.
In 2012 Jesse was inducted into the Comhaltas Hall of Fame for the US Mid-Atlantic Region.