6th Annual New York Trad Fest

Tony Demarco is a world class Irish fiddler from Brooklyn, New York. Tony's fiddling has been featured in music programs at New York University organized by Mick Moloney, as well as the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick headed by Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin. He has also been recorded on the Smithsonian folkways records. Tony has been performing and teaching Irish fiddle music for more than 30 years and is now one of leading living exponents of the New York/Sligo fiddle style. The late Paddy Reynolds, Andy McGann and Martin Wynne were very influential on Tony's playing, as was the music of New York/Sligo fiddlers of the generation prior, including Michael Coleman, James Morrison, Paddy Killoran, and James "Lad" O'Beirne. Tony's album The Sligo Indians, released in 2008 is tribute to this style and the musicians that shaped his music. His landmark The Apple in Winter album with Brian Conway is a highly regarded example of the old Sligo-style twin fiddle music from New York. 

Photo credit: Timmy Wheelan

The  music  of  multi-instrumentalist  Jenna  Nicholls  has  been  turning  heads  since  she  arrived  on  the  door  step  of  the  Lower  East  Side  of  NY  in  2010. Whether  she’s  crooning a  jazz  standard,  belting  out  a  New  Orleans  dirge, or plucking her 1920’s  style  original  ballads  on  her  Ukulele,  she’s  giving  a  vintage  genre  a  new  spin  with  her  own  lush  nostalgic style. Recently,  Jenna  has shared  the  stage  with  Oscar-winning  Glen  Hansard, and has performed with Amanda  Palmer,  Lucius,  Joan  as  Policewoman,  and  the  Larceny  Chamber  Orchestra.  In  2016  she  participated  in  GIG,  a  dance/  music  collaborative  performance  choreographed  by  Whitney  G-Bowley  and  Dana  Moore  (Bob  Fosse).  She  has performed  all  over the  world and in venues  including  The  Gelsey  Kirkland  Center  for  the  Performing  Arts  and  Carnegie  Hall.

From Ballintogher, Co Sligo, Daithí Gormley is regarded as one of the finest Button Accordion players of his generation with an extensive and much respected repertoire steeped in the rich musical heritage of his native county Sligo. He has taught and performed at various music festivals and Summer Schools nationally and internationally including the South Sligo Summer School, Joe Mooney Summer School and Scoil Egise. He has researched, published, and lectured extensively on Irish traditional music and is in high demand as an accomplished tutor, lecturer, and performer. In November 2017 Daithí and Sligo fiddler Oisín MacDiarmada published the Fiddlers of Sligo Tunebook and in April 2018 Daithí released his debut solo album Fiddling without a Bow–Irish Traditional Music on Button Accordion.

Fiddler Oisín Mac Diarmada has spent most of his musical life living in Sligo, an area noted historically for an extraordinarily rich fiddle tradition. On the new album The Green Branch, Oisín explores a wide repertoire of fiddle material accompanied by the piano of Samantha Harvey, the hallmark sound of so many classic recordings of Sligo fiddlers. Founder of leading traditional group Téada, with whom he has toured extensively throughout the world since 2001, Oisín’s solo performances have seen him play at specialist music festivals such as Masters of Tradition in West Cork, accompanying former Irish President Mary McAleese on a State visit to Romania and a guest solo appearance performing Charlie Lennon’s Island Wedding suite with the Southern Georgia Symphony Orchestra in the US. Oisín has toured frequently in recent years with noted singer/accordion-player Séamus Begley, with whom he has released 2 duo albums. Most recently Oisín worked in a presenting role in The Sligo Masters documentary broadcast on TG4, which explored the fascinating story of 3 master Sligo fiddlers who emigrated to the US in the early 20th century.