FairPlé: New York

Christina Dolphin was born in County Dublin, Ireland. She took up the tin whistle at age 7 and went on to learn the flute a few years later.

After studying at Trinity College Dublin, she went on to receive a master’s degree in ethnomusicology where she lectures occasionally on Irish traditional music. 

Over the past decade, she has toured extensively; performing and teaching in Ireland, the UK, America, Canada, Europe, China, Southeast Asia and New Zealand.

She is a two-time All-Ireland champion, and also holds several other medals from various All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil competitions.

Christina currently lives in New York where she teaches with the Irish Arts Center, and performs regularly with the Grammy-nominated, Tony award-winning Broadway musical, Come From Away.

Described by one critic as “a phenomenal harp player who can make her instrument ring with unparalleled purity,” Maeve Gilchrist has taken the Celtic harp to new levels of performance.

Born and raised in Edinburgh, Scotland, and currently based in Brooklyn, New York, Maeve's innovative approach to her instrument stretches its harmonic limits and improvisational possibilities. She is as at home as a soloist with an internationally renowned orchestra as she is playing with a traditional Irish folk group or using electronic augmentation in a more contemporary, improvisatory setting.

 Maeve tours internationally as a band leader, as well as maintaining a number of collaborations. These collaborations include a duo project with percussive dancer Nic Gareiss, an electronics based project with Viktor Krauss, and she is also a member of the Edges of Light quartet: a multidisciplinary group featuring piper David Power, dancer Colin Dunne, and fiddler Tola Custy. She has appeared at such major music events as Celtic Connections in Glasgow, Tanglewood Jazz festival, the World Harp Congress in Amsterdam, and the opening of the Scottish Parliament. She has played with such luminaries as Esperanza Spalding, Tony Trishka, Ambrose Akinmusire, Solas, and Darol Anger.

Maeve has released five albums to date, including her most recent recording Vignette, on Adventure Records, with Nashville legend Viktor Krauss, while on her own label her solo Ostinato Project is a beguiling exploration of the possibilities of her instrument. Maeve was the first lever harpist to join the faculty of the iconic Berklee College of Music in Boston where she taught for five years before switching to a visiting roots department artist this spring. She has also written several instructional books published by Hal Leonard Music.

From Dublin, Ivan Goff plays uilleann pipes and Irish concert flute and is currently a member of Irish traditional band Danú. Over the years he has performed internationally in duets and ensembles with many household names of Irish music including Iarla Ó Lionáird, Mícheál Ó Raghallaigh, Martin Hayes, Cormac Breatnach, Eileen Ivers Band, Dervish, and Lúnasa. Ivan has also appeared with the New York Philharmonic, and his music has featured in several well-known productions such as Riverdance and Sting's The Last Ship on Broadway. His collaborations with producers, composers, and choreographers include: dance (Jean Butler's Hurry), theater (Richard Maxwell's Samara), film soundtrack (Matthew Barney's Cremaster), new music (with The League of Composers/ISCM), and experimental improv (with Evan Parker).

 Ivan holds a PhD in music from New York University and masters degrees from Queens University, Belfast and University College Dublin.  

Dan grew up loving his father’s LPs of American folk music. He was drawn particularly to instrumental music and at the age of eight took up the accordion and became interested in Irish music. In those early years he took occasional lessons from some of the accordion players he most admired; musicians such as John Whelan and Billy McComiskey. At Billy’s urging he switched from the D/G to the B/C accordion which is the version of the instrument most common in Irish music today. He credits the influence of the all-accordion album The Big Squeeze, issued on the Green Linnet label in 1988, with introducing him to a variety of playing styles.

Jenna is a native of a Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, but calls NYC her home. She has toured all over the world and performed with a variety of well known and talented artists such as Oscar-winner Glen Hansard, as well as Amanda Palmer, Lucius, Angela McClusky (Telepop) Rob Moose, Thomas Bartlett (BonIver/Doveman), Nouvelle Vague, and many others. Jenna's music has been featured in film and television, and she's toured and released 2 full albums including Curled Up Toes in Red Mary Janes and The Blooming Hour.

Originally from Killarney in the South-West of Ireland, singer-songwriter Brendan O’Shea moved to the United States in the late '90s. Since then, he has become a veteran of New York City’s songwriter scene and released three albums which have garnered praise from critics and press around the world.

Irish music magazine Hot Press rated his 2nd record Be Here Still an 8 1/2 out of 10 and XM Radio’s Mike Morrone called it one of his “favorite records of the year.”

Brendan’s singing can also be heard in such films as Ron Howard’s Academy Award nominated film Backdraft and in the wildly successful Karen Gehres documentary Begging Naked. His songs are also featured on ABC’s docudrama Boston Med.

Brendan has shared stages with The Frames, The Swell Season, Glen Hansard, Cowboy Junkies, Elliott Smith, Loudan Wainright, and Interpol, as well as other innovative contemporaries. In addition to headlining his own shows in both the United States and Europe, he has embarked on four tours of Japan with the Trinity Dance Troupe and is currently collaborating with Colin Dunne and Mike Kirkpatrick on new works for the company.

In 2007 Brendan became a founding member of Fairplay Collective, a unique endeavor in which songwriters come together to support and promote each other’s individual projects as independent artists. In 2008 Brendan, Pete Olshansky and Karl Geary (Sin-e) began hosting a Sunday night concert series in NYC’s East Village called the Scratcher Sessions which features musicians from around the world.

Brendan has just finished production on his fourth full-length release to follow up from his 2011 album Songs From A Tenement.