Cillian & Niall Vallely, With John Doyle,

Will Bring Irish Music To The Meeting House

The Shamrock Traditional Irish Music Society will bring Cillian and Niall Vallely with John Doyle to Newtown Meeting House, 31 Main Street, on Friday, February 18, at 8 pm, as the next offering in the society’s popular concert series. Most concerts hosted by STIMS at the meeting house are performed for a capacity audience; early ticket reservations are suggested.

Brothers Cillian and Niall Vallely, from County Armagh in the north of Ireland, grew up in a family deeply involved with Irish traditional music. Their parents, both musicians, founded the Armagh Pipers’ Club, an organization credited with a major role in the revival of traditional music in the North.

Cillian Vallely took up his father’s instrument, the uillean pipes (the Irish bellows-driven bagpipes), and is today a member of the popular cutting-edge traditional band Lúnasa.

Niall Vallely adopted the concertina, an instrument not usually associated with his native county, and has become one of Ireland’s foremost exponents of the instrument and a well-known composer of tunes in the traditional idiom. A founding member of the band Nomos, he is also notable for his work with his wife and musical partner Karan Casey, formerly of Solas.

Over the years, both brothers have played music with a wide range of partners both inside and outside Irish music, including collaborations with the Irish classical composer-pianist Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin and the American bluegrass and old time mandolinist and banjo player Tim O’Brien.

John Doyle, born in Dublin, son of the singer Sean Doyle, also grew up immersed in Irish traditional music. Best known as a guitarist, he is also a fine bouzouki player, an excellent singer, a songwriter and a composer of tunes.

In recent years he has toured and recorded with many musicians, including American folk legend Joan Baez, the Chicago Irish fiddler Liz Carroll (with whom he has twice played at Newtown Meeting House), and his former Solas bandmate Karan Casey, as well as building a thriving career as a solo artist.

Tickets are $20, $5 for children. For reservations call 203-256-8453 or send email to tmquinn@optonline.net. More information may also be found at ShamrockIrishMusic.org.