Draft:Keane/Connolly/McGorman

Keane/Connolly/McGorman are a quartet of traditional Irish musicians who are currently active within the traditional music scene. They consist of uilleann piper Pádraic Keane, fiddle player Aidan Connolly, and brothers Fergus McGorman on flute and Ruairí McGorman on Greek bouzouki. Their music is bright, energetic, and highly influenced by past traditional Irish musicians and groups, such as Paddy Cronin, Denis Murphy, De Danann, The Chieftains, and more. In December 2023, they released their self-titled debut album under the renowned Raelach Records label, with funding from The Arts Council of Ireland.

Pádraic Keane
Uilleann piper Pádraic Keane is from Maree, Co. Galway and was born into a great musical family. He is a tutor at many music festivals in Ireland and abroad. In 2011 he was awarded TG4 Young Musician of the Year. He has toured America as a soloist with The Irish Chamber Orchestra and has collaborated with Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, The RTE Concert and Symphony Orchestras as well as various string quartets. He has also toured Europe with Ragús and worked with Galway's Irish language theatre group - An Taibhdhearc. He has featured on a number of albums including 'The Rolling Wave' - a CD of young pipers issued by Na Píobairí Uilleann, 'Tunes in the Church' and 'Rogha Raelach' , issued by Raelach Records. He has also performed at The Masters of Tradition festival held in Bantry House and curated by Martin Hayes. In 2022, he released his highly anticipated debut solo album entitled, 'In Full Tune'.

Aidan Connolly
Aidan Connolly is a fiddle player from Rathfarnham who has been heavily influenced both by the musicians of his locality and the great fiddlers of times past: Paddy Cronin, Paddy Canny and Denis Murphy to name but a few. He has studied traditional music in-depth and is a highly respected authority on traditional instrumental music from the 1920s onwards. Aidan has his own unique style of playing and is a highly sought-after performer both in Ireland and abroad. He released his debut album, 'Be Off', in October 2016 to critical acclaim. Aidan relocated to the Spanish city of Valencia in 2018 and is now a regular performer in Spain, Ireland, and further afield in the USA, Australia and Japan. In 2019, Aidan collaborated with fiddle player John Daly on 'Away On Up The Road', a must-have album for fiddle fans. Aidan followed this with his much anticipated solo fiddle album, 'The Portland Bow', in 2021 to critical acclaim, being nominated for 'Best Instrumentalist' at the 2022 RTE Folk Awards.

Fergus McGorman
A member of the renowned McEvoy/McGorman family, Fergus began learning the flute at the age of ten and has gone on to win numerous all-Ireland solo titles at fleadh competitions. He was also a member of groups that won ‘Siansa’ Gael Linn, the country’s most prestigious competition for young traditional Irish music and singing groups. Fergus has performed throughout Ireland at a number of festivals and was also invited to perform and teach at the ‘Recontres Musicales Irlandaises de Tocane’, France, ‘Athens Irish Festival’, Greece and ‘Gothenburg Irish Music Festival’, Sweden. In 2017 he took part in The Seán Ó Riada Gold Medal final which was broadcast live on RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta. He has also performed on RTE television and radio and TG4 on numerous occasions. Fergus released his debut solo flute album, 'Sweeping the Cobwebs Out of the Sky' in 2017, which was received positively and showcased Fergus’s strong individual style.

Ruairí McGorman
Brother of Fergus, Ruairí McGorman is a Greek bouzouki, guitar and fiddle player, who is greatly influenced by the traditional music scene of the 1970s, most significantly De Danann and the music of Alec Finn. Ruairí has played and taught music all over the world; in 2009 he moved to Australia where he taught traditional music for The Gaelic Club in Sydney, and performed at festivals including 'Ceol Aneas' in Nelson, New Zealand ; in 2014 he toured Germany with traditional group 'Mórga', and has continued to accompany other musicians since, such as Frankie Gavin , Noel Hill, De Danann, Jack Talty , and many more. Ruairí can be heard on numerous recordings with Aidan Connolly, Jack Talty , Diarmuid Ó Meachair , Dan Brouder & Angelina Carberry , John Blake , Ado Barker , Paudie O’Connor & Aoife O’Keefe , and more.

Music
Pádraic, Aidan, Fergus and Ruairí grew up playing traditional music together and first recorded as a four-piece on Aidan Connolly's album 'Be Off', with the jigs 'Streams of Kilnaspig/The Lark in the Blue Summer Sky'. Subsequently, they were invited to perform together at the 'Corofin Traditional Music Festival' in March 2020, which marked their first appearance as Keane/Connolly/McGorman.

Their music is heavily influenced by past masters such as Paddy Cronin, Denis Murphy, Patsy Tuohey, etc., and has been described as reminiscent of the well-known musicians and groups of the 1970s-revival era of traditional Irish music, such as The Chieftains.

Keane/Connolly/McGorman's debut album, 'Keane Connolly McGorman', was released by Raelach Records on 01/12/2023, and was funded by The Arts Council of Ireland. Noreen O'Donoghue makes an appearance on the harp, while Jack Talty plays piano. The album was well-received by reviewers, with Irish Music Magazine describing the album as 'uncluttered and precise', and as 'a brilliant album that I think everyone should own', by Daniel Neely in The Irish Echo.

Albums

 * Keane Connolly McGorman (2023 - Raelach Records)