Pádraig Rynne, Caoimhe Ní Fhlatharta & Tara Breen

Pádraig Rynne

Regarded as one of the finest concertina players in Irish music today, Pádraig Rynne is a musician, composer, producer and programmer. In his youth, Pádraig won an unprecedented five solo All-Ireland concertina titles as well as  two Oireachtas and numerous group awards.

With an MA in Music Technology and a passion for experimenting with diverse genres, Pádraig is recognised for his refreshing explorations into the Irish tradition and beyond. Following the release of his first solo album Bye A while (‘05), Pádraig went on to form many ground breaking groups: Guidewires, Triad (Sylvain Barou and Dónal Lunny), Aeons with singer Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh, Atlantic Arc, and with his own band Notify who are signed to American jazz label Ropeadope records; with whom they have released two albums, with the third due for release in March ‘24. Notify have had high profile collaborations with multi-Grammy award winning musicians Mark Lettieri and Jason Thomas of Snarky Puppy, Joe Dart of Vulfpeck, Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh, Kris Drever and Dónal Lunny and in 2023 they will tour Ireland with sean-nós artists Séamus and Caoimhe Uí Fhlatharta who feature on their forthcoming album.

As a producer and composer, Pádraig has featured on over thirty albums. He was commissioned to write the music for TG4’s 20th Anniversary celebration and his compositions have been recorded by a wide variety of musicians including Flook, Brian Finnegan, Dónal Lunny, Ímar, Socks In The Frying Pan and ICE.

Pádraig has been a regular tutor at the All Ireland Fleadh since 1997. He has been a guest tutor at UL to both their degree and Master Students and prior to his current role as the Music Development Officer for Music Generation Clare, was a teacher to 300 students a week through their programmes as well as teaching students digitally from areas as diverse as South Korea, Japan and the USA.

Caoimhe Ní Fhlatharta

Caoimhe Ní Fhlatharta is one half of the brother/sister duo Séamus & Caoimhe Uí Fhlatharta, who are highly regarded for their sean-nós singing (unaccompanied traditional Irish vocal performance in the Irish language) and their unique arrangements of both Irish and English language songs.  With a particular interest in vocal arrangement and harmonization, their performances are gifted with the vocal tones that only families share.

Born into a village at the heart of the Gaeltacht Irish language region in Connemara on the West Coast of Ireland, Caoimhe has been immersed in the traditions of Irish music, song and dance through her mother tongue, Gaeilge.  She began playing music and singing at the age of 4.  Broadening her musical abilities in later years, she developed the sean-nós singing style native to her area, became a multi-instrumentalist and began experimenting with other styles and genres. 

Caoimhe has received many accolades at numerous music competitions across the country, including County and Provincial titles as well as two All-Ireland titles at the age of 14; she is currently studying a BA in Irish Music at the Irish World Academy at the University of Limerick.

Having amassed a vast repertoire of sean-nós songs, ballads and tunes over the years they been privileged to share the stage with many renowned performers. The duo has performed for the President of Ireland Michael D Higgins, at leading festivals such as Celtic Connections and their Late Late Show performance in 2022 of the soulful lament Anach Cuain went viral around the world.  Séamus and Caoimhe released their first EP in Spring ’23 produced by Brian Whelan and Riverdance composer Bill Whelan.

Tara Breen

A highly talented multi-instrumentalist from Co. Clare, Tara has achieved All-Ireland titles on fiddle in every age category over the years, culminating with the senior Oireachtas fiddle title in 2011 and the All-Ireland Senior Fiddle Title in 2012. Tara’s virtuosity doesn’t stop at fiddle, as she also holds All-Ireland titles for flute and saxophone. She achieved a Dip. ABRSM in 2007 in classical flute, and also qualified as a Traditional Irish Music teacher with Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, achieving her TTCT in 2011. Her studies also led her to the University College Cork where she studied Music and Irish and received an honour in BAMus and Bmus.

Such is Tara’s complete mastery of the fiddle, she was chosen to play for the Queen of England at Dublin Castle during her State visit to Ireland.  She has lent her playing to many recordings and has toured with Dónal Lunny, Heartbeat of Home, Carlos Nunez, Stocktons Wing, The Chieftains, Music Network and many more. Tara continues her role as one of Ireland’s best known session musicians and has recently  guested on tours, recordings and performances with acts such as Dónal Lunny’s Atlantic Arc, Nuala Kennedy, Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh, and the Canadian dance production The StepCrew.  In 2020 Tara came together with long term collaborator Pádraig Rynne releasing their own album Nasc -awarded the best traditional album in the 2022 American Celtic Listener Supported Radio Awards.

An advocate for music education, Tara has taught fiddle for the last 12 years. She is an employee of Music Generation Clare where she continues to preserve the Clare tradition of music. Tara also teaches annually at the Willie Clancy Week and Scoil Eigse.