Kansas Uilleann Piper Lauded for Pirate Queen
We’ve been featuring some of the main reviews for the Irish Broadway musical thingy, The Pirate Queen, since its pre-Broadway run in Chicago - and the reviews haven’t been much better in New York.
But the show has survived, and Paul Keating in the Irish Voice attributes that to the quality of certain Irish traditional musicians.
Specifically he’s talking about sean nós singer Aine Ui Cheallaigh, piper/whistle player Kieran O’Hare and fiddler Liz Knowles.
Of the three, the very highly regarded - and rightly so - Kieran O’Hare should be most well known to Kansas City, being a local Kansas boy before he went to Chicago via Ireland.
O’Hare has worked with John Doyle - who you may have seen last week at the MVFS gig with Liz Carroll, with Roger Landes, who you may have seen recently playing his bouzouki with Chipper Thompson at Delahunt’s Cafe &, and with Connie Dover, who you may have seen in the not too recent past playing with members of Glen Road.
And if you’ve seen him you seen him play pipes made by KC musician and pipe-maker extraordinaire Kirk Lynch
Kieran has also worked with the likes of Anúna who I told you about quite some time ago, with flute player John Skelton and with his wife of course, Liz Knowles a former Riverdance fiddler.
Among other things, Keating says this of O’Hare’s piping for The Pirate Queen:
Blessed with a keen sense of humor and intelligence, O’Hare had to work extremely hard to master the complex musical notation and arrangements to fit in with The Pirate Queen orchestra pit, which he appears to have mastered to the betterment of the show.
Kieran O’Hare online: MySpace • Website
See Also:
• Flatley The Re-inventor
• Introduction to The Pirate Queen
• Irish Show Folk & Weird Celtic Fox
• Irish Choral Music & Celtic Underpants
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