Wonderful Irish Music Session at Hiram College

Last Sunday, February 13th, twenty-two Irish musicians, a couple of Irish dancers, and about 10 onlookers met at a Hiram College music room for a "session," organized by Hiram professor Tina Dreisbach. The musicians included a harper, a player of uillean (Irish) pipes, a mandolin player, several fiddlers, players of Irish and classical flutes, whistle players (including a "low D" whistle player), a bodhran player, a bongo player, two players of concertinas, guitarists, a piano player, and so on.

I sat on the edge of the circle, but was able to join in on a few tunes (this time with my guitar). We played a lot of traditional tunes, but were treated to two new tunes: "The Heights Hornpipe," by Dermot Sommerville (who also played guitar and flute during the session); and a beautiful tune called "Ottinger's Lament," played by fiddler and composer John Reynolds. Both tunes were spectacularly beautiful. Toward the end of the session, two fairly young girls did some Irish dancing. I was really pleased with the number of young musicians at this session--there is a future for this beautiful music!

Thanks to all the musicians and organizers: Tina Dreisbach (and her husband,Paul, the uillean piper); Ellen Eckhouse, harper who played O'Carolan's "Morgan Megan" so beautifully; Sheldon Firem, bodhran player extraordinaire; Mike Mazur, a cultural force in the Cleveland Irish community; and all the other wonderful Irish musicians whose names I do not yet know.

One of the beautiful tunes we played at Hiram was the slip jig "The Butterfly." I located a youtube version of this tune, which can be accessed below or by clicking on the title to this blog entry:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKkeXBY-emA