Mick Moloney and Athena Tergis: In Residence

Mick Moloney, originally from County Limerick, Ireland, was a member of the Johnston's Folk Group in Ireland, before coming to the US in 1973. Whilst pursuing a Ph.D. in folklore at the University of Pennsylvania, he teamed up with the much-loved fiddler Eugene O'Donnell, as well as performed and recorded extensively with Robbie O’Connell and Jimmy Keane. Moloney has been a producer and performer in over sixty recordings and several documentary films. He is the author of Far from the Shamrock Shore: The Story of Irish American History Through Song, editor of Close to the Floor: The Story of Irish Dance in America, and the recipient of the National Heritage Award. He currently plays with a wide variety of musicians, including The Green Fields of America, an all-star group he formed in 1978, which helped launch the careers of young artists such as Eileen Ivers, Seamus Egan, Jean Butler and Michael Flatley. In 2007, his album McNally’s Row of Flats was awarded the title of Best Irish Traditional Music Album of the Year by the Irish Echo, and also gained the Irish Livies top Album of the Year award. Moloney's 2009 album, If It Wasn’t For the Irish and the Jews also received Best Irish Album of the Year by the Irish Livies. Most recently, Moloney was awarded a 2013 Presidential Distinguished Service Award for the Irish Aboard, and a 2014 Gradam Ceoil Lifetime Achievement Award from TG4. He is a professor of Music and Irish Studies at New York University.

Athena Tergis hails from a musical family in San Francisco where she released her first album at age 16. She followed her passion for traditional music to Ireland and joined the Sharon Shannon Band. Athena was also the featured violinist in the production of Riverdance on Broadway. She spent over a year on tour with Bruce Springsteen’s sax player, Clarence Clemmons. In 2001 she joined Mick Moloney and Billy McComiskey in The Green Fields of America releasing their self-titled album on Compass records along with her solo album A Letter Home and a PBS documentary: Absolutely Irish! Athena is a regular principal soloist and composer with the Dublin Philharmonic Orchestra.

Christina Dolphin grew up in Monkstown, Dublin, and competed in Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann (the Irish World Championships) up to the age of 19, achieving All-Ireland honors in flute, tin whistle, and slow air competitions at both junior and senior levels. She also featured on RTE’s Bloom of Youth radio program in 2008 as one of Ireland's upcoming young musicians. After receiving a full university scholarship, Christina went on to complete a bachelor's in music and a master’s degree in ethnomusicology at University College Dublin, where she occasionally lectures on Irish traditional music. Over the past decade, Christina has toured extensively; performing and teaching in Ireland, England, America, Canada, Europe, Asia and New Zealand. She also holds a diploma in teaching Irish traditional music (TTCT) and has more than 10 years of experience teaching Irish traditional flute and tin whistle in groups, workshops, privately, over Skype, and for corporate events.

Brendan Dolan is the son of Irish traditional piano legend Felix Dolan, and has established his own reputation as one of the foremost pianists in Irish music. He is also an archivist with an M.A. in Irish and Irish-American Studies from New York University, where he processed the Mick Moloney Irish-American Music and Popular Culture Collection in the Archives of Irish America at Tamiment Library. Brendan's playing can be heard on Pride of New York, Live at Mona's, Billy McComiskey's Outside the Box, Brian Conway's Consider the Source, and Mick Moloney's Far From the Shamrock Shore, McNally's Row of Flats and If It Wasn't For the Irish and the Jews.  Brendan has also performed with such non-Irish musicians as classical violinist Itzhak Perlman and klezmer clarinetist-mandolinist Andy Statman. He has taught traditional music for many years at the Augusta Heritage Center in Elkins, West Virginia, and at the Catskills Irish Arts Week in East Durham, New York and teaches children in the New York City area year round. He currently teaches instrumental music at Avenues: the World School.

Dylan Foley, A 4-time All-Ireland Fiddle Champion, Dylan was a student of the great Rose Flanagan (the original fiddler in Cherish the Ladies) and counts Joanie Madden, Brian Conway, Mike McHale, and Monsignor Charlie Coen among his primary influences. He is a vibrant stylist whose playing has been called “impeccable and spirited.”

Dylan has performed at Lincoln Center, Joanie Madden’s Folk N’ Irish Cruise, Austin Celtic Festival, at Gracie Mansion for NYC Mayor Bloomberg, on Jay Unger’s Dancing On the Air show on WAMC, also Foley has been featured on Irish Television channels RTE and TG4’s fleadh program. At age 12, Dylan made an appearance on the HBO special “The Music In Me”. With the help of Irish Aid, In January 2013, Foley travelled with Dr. Mick Moloney (NYU Ethnomusicologist and Folklorist) to Vietnam in order to bring Irish music, song, dance and culture to those who were effected by Agent Orange and other Vietnam War atrocities. Dylan also performed with Mick Moloney, Joanie Madden, Bobby Hicks, Matt Molloy and Sharon Shannon.

He has also taught and performed at the Catskills Irish Arts Week, CCE MAD week and Elkins Irish Week. In March 2012, Foley released his debut solo album, “Hup!” featuring Brendan Dolan (piano) and Josh Dukes. Since then Foley has released 2 stellar albums with the award winning quartet 'The Yanks' (who were #1 on the bandcamp download charts). Dylan has most recently recorded a duo album with accordionist and CEO of Concert Window, Dan Gurney call 'Irish Music in the Hudson Valley' giving thanks to their mentors Fr. Charlie Coen and Mike McHale. Now, at the age of 23, Foley teaches privately, plays concerts and sessions around the greater NY area and abroad.

Dan Gurney grew up loving his father’s LP’s of American folk music. He was drawn particularly to instrumental music and at the age of eight took up the accordion and became really 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. 

Billy McComiskey, originally from Brooklyn, has been playing the accordion for over 50 years studying alongside many of the finest Irish Immigrant musicians of the 20th Century. He has been hailed as “the best Irish accordion player in America” and at the center of the revival of traditional music with the trail-blazing group The Irish Tradition in Washington D.C., The Catskills and his adopted home in Baltimore, Maryland where he is considered the Godfather of Irish music. An All-Ireland champion in 1986, he either taught or deeply influenced many prominent traditional Irish musicians throughout the United States and he has performed with Mick Moloney since the late 1970s in The Green Fields of America Ensemble. He also plays in the quintessential Irish-American Trad band The Pride of New York a first-generation group of tradition bearers who have played in Ireland and major festivals in America.

Niall O’Leary is an architect and a former All-Ireland and World Champion dancer originally from Dublin. He runs his own architectural practice in NYC, as well as the Niall O’Leary School of Irish Dance. His Irish dance teachers have included Kevin Massey, proclaimed by Michael Flatley to be the greatest Irish dancer ever, and Rory O’Connor, the first man to do Irish dancing on the radio. He is the artistic director of the New York City Irish Dance Festival presented by Irish Arts Center in May each year, and performs regularly as a solo artist, in duet with Darrah Carr, and with Mick Moloney’s Green Fields of America, as well as with his company The Niall O’Leary Irish Dance Troupe. He is in constant demand as a performer, choreographer and master instructor and conducts regular workshops and master classes around the US, Canada, Ireland, Mexico, Japan, Thailand and Vietnam. He is the founding chairman of Ull Mor CCÉ, the Manhattan branch of Comhaltas, and was president of the Irish Business Organization of NY Inc. from 2010-2011. In 2004, O’Leary was honored by Irish America magazine as one of the Top 100 Irish-Americans of the Year.

Jerry O'Sullivan has been widely hailed as America's premier uilleann piper. His reputation for technical and melodic mastery of the instrument, an Irish bagpipe known for its subtlety and expression, is unsurpassed in the United States, and is demanding considerable attention overseas. Jerry is also widely recorded on the tin whistle, the low whistle, the Highland Pipes and the Scottish smallpipes.

Jerry has appeared on more than 90 albums and has performed or recorded with artists such as The Boston Pops, Don Henley, Paul Winter, James Galway, Dolly Parton, The Colorado Symphony Orchestra, The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, Eileen Ivers, and many others.

Born in New York City to an Irish-American mother and a father from Dublin, Ireland, Jerry first learned to play the Scottish highland pipes. During summer visits to family in Dublin, he learned the uilleann pipes from listening and asking questions to experienced players such as Peter Carberry, Matt Kiernan, Dan Dowd, Peter McKenna, Fergus Finnegan, Mick O'Brien, Gay McKeon, and others. In New York, uilleann piper Bill Ochs was a major help and inspiration to Jerry.

Jerry O'Sullivan is a gifted ambassador of the Irish uilleann pipes, maintaining the historic traditions and melodies of the instrument while expanding its range into new genres of music and media. His mastery of the instrument, traditional knowledge, versatility, and dedication to education truly make him America's premier uilleann piper.

Haley Richardson is the 2015 Junior Fiddler of Dooney, the 2013 All Ireland Champion winning in both under 12 solo fiddle and under 12 fiddle slow airs, and 2017 All Ireland under 15 slow air champion.

After asking to learn to play the violin at age two, Haley began Suzuki violin lessons at the age of three. Her enthusiasm and love of playing was quickly recognized and at four she began lessons with Gerry Rice of Haddonfield, NJ who remained her teacher until fall 2015. Haley currently studies classical violin with Madison Day of Audobon, NJ.

Before her 5th birthday, Haley fell in love with Irish music inspired by fiddler Kevin Burke during a live performance. She began learning fiddle tunes from Kevin's How to Play Celtic Fiddle DVD and by listening to his CD and playing along while riding in the car. Formal study of Irish the fiddle began with Kathy DeAngelo of Voorhees, NJ in August of 2007. In July 2009, after winning her first MidAtlantic under 12 Irish fiddle competition at just six years old, she met fiddling legend and teacher, Brian Conway, who became her teacher a couple months later. By April 2014, Haley was a 6X MidAtlantic Region under 12 Irish fiddle champion. She is a 3X MidAtlantic Fleadh Under 15 solo fiddle championship and 2X Under 15 fiddle slow airs champion,  bringing the number of MidAtlantic solo fiddle wins to nine consecutive championships. She has placed numerous times in the All Ireland competition in both solo fiddle, fiddle slow airs, and in trio competitions including second place in both under 15 solo fiddle and fiddle slow airs in August 2016.

In addition to being a dynamic solo performer, Haley has performed with many of the most well-known names in Irish music today including The Chieftains, Altan, Dervish, Mick Moloney, Pride of New York, Liz Carroll with Cherish the Ladies, John Whelan, Paddy Keenan, and is a regular member of Green Fields of American and The John Whelan Band. She has also participated as the band fiddler in the Studio2Stage Irish dance production, That's Dancing, from 2014-2017.

John Whelan has been a wonderful mentor to Haley. He  recorded and produced Haley's debut CD, Heart on a String, in March 2015, Haley also appeared on two tracks as part of  Andy Lamy's "Mixed Flock" on his CD The New Blackthorn Stick.  In March 2017, Haley released a CD she produced entitled Music for Mercy, a compilation CD featuring donated tracks from many of the best Irish musicians under 21 years old from around the world. All proceeds from the CD benefit the Mercy Centre in Bangkok, Thailand.

John Roberts sings the traditional folksongs of his native Britain. He developed his interest in folksongs at high school, and determined to teach himself to play guitar and took one off to Manchester University, where he soon became a singer at local clubs during the "folk revival" of the early '60s. His initial repertoire of predominantly American songs gradually gave way to more British and Irish material as he explored and absorbed his own native traditions. He sang in a duo with fellow-Brit Tony Barrand, performing at concerts and festivals throughout the USA and Canada, and with him developed and performed in Nowell Sing We Clear, which brought a fresh look at the Christmas season through traditional songs and customs, touring throughout the northeastern US for 40 years. He has been a featured and supporting singer and musician for many of the concert productions that Mick Moloney has produced under the auspices of the IAC, and has recorded with Mick, singing harmony on several of his recent recordings. His own recordings can be sampled at goldenhindmusic.com.