IAC Commissions: Joanie Madden

“When distinguished tin whistle or flute players over the past quarter of a century come to mind, Irish traditional music aficionados invariably will add Joanie Madden’s name to the list. Her music is pure art, compelling and creative, vibrant and virtuosic.”—Irish Echo

Joanie Madden is flutist and tin whistle player born in New York to Irish parents from Counties Clare and Galway. She became the first American to win the All-Ireland Fleadh title on the whistle and is the top selling whistle player of all time with 500,000 album sales, with performances on over 200 CDs, including three Grammy-winning releases. Joanie has been recognized by Irish America magazine as one the Top 100 Irish Americans and Top 50 Most Powerful Irish Women in the world, and won a lifetime achievement award from the Irish Music Awards. She has been immortalized in her native Bronx with a street named after her.

For the past 35 years, Joanie has performed thousands of concerts while touring the world both solo and as leader of the renowned female music and dance group Cherish the Ladies.

The pandemic has forced humanity into an involuntary state of uncertainty that may last a long time. This is troubling, of course, but, as with any of life’s terribly sad moments, is not without redemptive possibility. We are challenged to find a new comfort level with uncertainty as a more constant companion. 

Like everyone, we at Irish Arts Center are entering a new phase of grappling with all of this. We still don’t know when it will be safe or allowable to gather in groups for live performing arts experiences. We continue to innovate our digital programming and prepare for our magnificent new building that awaits us, soon enough we hope. We develop scenarios and contingency plans. 

And we challenge ourselves to lean into the moment. For this, as ever, we rely on the artists. 

To that end, we have commissioned more than two dozen artists reflecting a range of perspectives across our artistic community, to create short works that respond to the idea of finding grace in uncertainty, to find meaning in the chaos, and perhaps even some redemption, as we recognize the fear and sadness we feel. 

In his work On the Transmigration of Souls, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic just weeks after 9/11, John Adams sought to create a “memory space” for those who suffered loss of life, of loved ones, of innocence, and to evoke the feeling “that we are all united by a common bond of humanity.” 

In a similar spirit, we wish to inspire a volume of artistic responses that might form a kind of tapestry of emotion, a chronicle of the moment, work that can be appreciated now and for the long-term.

The common bond of humanity unites these artists—and will carry us all through this moment.