A Tribute to Mick Moloney

Corkman Donie Carroll has been involved in folk music as far back as the mid 60’s. Having played the folk and ballad scene for close to 30 years in Ireland, England, and Scotland, Donie came to New York for a six week stint in 1993 and within a few months got involved with some of the best musicians around. Very soon he found himself playing a weekly residency at Kate Kearney’s with some on New York’s best including the legendary fiddle player Andy McGann. After a number of years doing the music scene in New York, Donie did a stint of acting on the recommendation of Mick Moloney, and he was cast in the Irish Repertory Theatre production of Sive and through this, Mick also invited him to become a member of the community band The Washington Square Harp and Shamrock Orchestra. It was during this time that Donie became aware of Redemptorist priest Fr. Joe Maeir and his work with the Mercy Center in the Slums of Bangkok. Very soon Donie and Mick were organizing fundraisers of different sorts. That fundraising has been ongoing since 2007 and supports the poorest of the poor in Bangkok, incuding the Slum Orchestra that Mick formed with these kids playing their own traditional Thai music and dance.  Donie is just back from Bangkok, bringing with him some of Mick’s most treasured musical instruments.

Since she was 18, when she astounded the Celtic music world by winning the Senior All-Ireland Fiddle Championship, Liz Carroll has been amazing audiences around the globe. She has been called a “virtuoso” (The Irish Times), a “celebrated torchbearer” (Lexington Herald-Leader), and a “master of Irish traditional music” (NPR’s The Thistle & Shamrock). She is a NEA National Heritage Fellow, a 2009 Grammy nominee (“Best Traditional World Album,” Double Play with John Doyle), and the first American-born recipient of the TG4 Gradam Cheoil for Cumadoir/Composer – Ireland’s most significant music prize. Liz’s recordings are, in the majority, her own compositions, and they have given her a stature equal to that of her playing. She is celebrated for invigorating the traditional styles of Irish music, and her compositions have entered the repertoire of Irish and Celtic performers throughout the world. Highlights from 2022 included composing music for the Who Do We Say We Are? project for Trinity College’s Long Room and Notre Dame’s Snite Museum; composing music and appearing alongside forty young fiddlers from Ireland and Scotland for the opening night of the All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil in Mullingar; and dressing up, in April, for her induction into the Irish-American Hall of Fame. She continues to talk about composition through her Patreon site, and is working with fiddler Liz Knowles on a series of podcasts called, The Lizzes, also on Patreon.

Megan Downes grew up dancing in New York City's traditional Irish music community before touring with Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble, directed by Eileen Carson and Mark Schatz. Now artistic director and sole choreographer for City Stompers, performing Fiddle Puppet style southern Appalachian clogging, Megan also leads mountain square dances and community ceilis and teaches old-time flatfooting, Irish sets and sean nós. You may have danced with her over the years at Ashokan (Southern Week is August 12-19, 2023), Augusta Heritage Center, Lincoln Center's Midsummer Night Swing, or Irish Trad Fest (April 14-16, 2023) in Baltimore MD.

Ivan is from Dublin and is a member of Irish traditional band Danú. He has performed/toured worldwide in duets and ensembles with many household names of Irish music including Iarla Ó Lionáird, Mícheál Ó Raghallaigh, Martin Hayes, John Doyle, Eileen Ivers, Cormac Breatnach, Dervish, and Lúnasa. With credits that range from film and theater to appearances with the New York Philharmonic, Ivan has also performed in Broadway productions such as Sting's The Last Ship, Come From Away, and Riverdance. Ivan has a PhD in music from NYU and MAs in music from UCD and Queens, Belfast.

Jefferson Hamer has toured and recorded with Anais Mitchell (Child Ballads, winner of a BBC2 Folk Award), Sarah Jarosz (as guitarist and harmony singer on the Grammy-nominated Blue Heron Suite), and Session Americana (producer/engineer/singer/guitarist). The Murphy Beds, his long-running traditional folk duo with Eamon O’Leary, has released two self-produced albums, about which the Huffington Post wrote, “[the album] bears repeated listening from start to finish, with ten beautiful, crystalline songs.” His original songs are featured on Alameda, an acoustic and electric collaboration with bassist Jeff Picker (Nickel Creek) and drummer John Fatum, featuring special guests from the NYC folk community and beyond.

Kieran Jordan is a Boston-based performer, teacher, and choreographer of Irish dance. A recipient of two Massachusetts Artist Fellowships, she holds an MA in contemporary dance from University of Limerick, a BA from Boston College, and the TCRG certificate for teaching Irish dance. With a performance style described as “playfully theatrical” (The Boston Globe) and “wonderfully expressive” (The Living Tradition), Kieran is known especially for her creative contributions in the performance and teaching of sean-nós dance. In Boston, she has fostered a vibrant community of non-competitive dancers through her studio and performance group, Kieran Jordan Dance, which has been active in the region for more than 20 years. 

Born in Philadelphia in an Irish American family, Kieran started Irish step dancing when she was five years old. As a teenager, she was introduced to Mick Moloney, who became a defining influence, and invited her to perform with himself, Eugene O’Donnell and Seamus Egan throughout her high school years. 

Kieran has taught at the Willie Clancy Summer School, Catskills Irish Arts Week, Augusta Heritage Center, and more, and she is the dance director for the Acadia Festival of Traditional Music and Dance in Maine. She was dance director for seven years for the WGBH production of A Christmas Celtic Sojourn and she has also choreographed and directed for Atlantic Steps, the Childplay ensemble, and other shows. 

Kieran is the creator of both documentaries and instructional videos on sean-nós and old-style steps dancing, including Secrets of the Sole, The Dan Furey Dance Group and a Circle of Squares, Musical Feet and her recently-released online platform called Footnotes. Her own footwork has been recorded on numerous albums with her music collaborators, including an album she produced called Cover the Buckle: A Collection of Irish Set Dances for Listening and Dancing. With a deepening focus at the intersections of dance, somatic movement, and healing arts, Kieran also practices energy healing, with certifications in Reiki and Polarity Therapy.

The 2017 winner of Hot House Magazine's "NYC Jazz Fans Decision" award for Best Clarinetist, Dan Levinson is equally at home as both leader and sideman, fronting his own groups as well as performing with those led by others. His roster of musical associates includes such names as Mel Tormé, Wynton Marsalis and Dick Hyman. Originally from Los Angeles, Dan has been based in New York City since 1983, although his busy schedule often takes him across the continent and around the world. He has performed in Brazil with filmmaker Woody Allen's band, as well as in Japan, Iceland, Latvia, and 18 European countries. From 1990 to 2009 Dan toured with singer/guitarist Leon Redbone. Since 1993 he has been a member of Vince Giordano's Nighthawks, the country's preeminent 1920s-'30s hot jazz orchestra, with whom he has appeared at Carnegie Hall, on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and on Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion radio program. Dan's successful Benny Goodman tributes have been presented both in the U.S. with James Langton's New York All-Star Big Band and in Europe with the Berlin-based Swing Dance Orchestra. Dan has recorded over 150 CDs, including nine under his own name. He can be heard on the soundtracks of the films The Cat's Meow, Ghost World, The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond, and Martin Scorsese's The Aviator, as well as on all five seasons of the Grammy Award-winning HBO television series Boardwalk Empire and all three seasons of the Amazon Prime Video series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Visit Dan on the web at www.danlevinson.com.

Eamon O’Leary from Dublin is a long time resident of New York City. A singer and string player he is one half of The Murphy Beds with Jefferson Hamer and a member of The Alt with Nuala Kennedy and John Doyle. His songwriting can be heard, most recently, on The Silver Sun from Reveal Records.

Born and raised in Worcestershire, England, of a Welsh family, John delights in sharing folk songs of the British Isles and Ireland, either a cappella or accompanied with banjo or concertina.  Residing in the United States for over fifty years, he developed a long-standing partnership with Tony Barrand, performing at concerts and festivals throughout the USA and Canada. John has been a featured singer and musician in many of Mick Moloney’s concert productions, especially those at the Irish Arts Center in NYC. John also recorded with Mick, singing harmony on several of his recent albums.