EAMON O'LEARY
While growing up in Dublin, Eamon developed an interest in Irish music through his friendship with the Mayock family, noted traditional musicians originally from County Mayo. When he moved to New York City in 1992, he met guitarist John Doyle and fiddle player Patrick Ourceau, among others, and has since become a fixture in the city’s thriving Irish music scene. Eamon has toured extensively throughout Europe and North America, performing with many of Irish music’s great players, including Paddy Keenan, Mick Moloney, Tommy Peoples, and James Keane, and has recorded with singer Susan McKeown and flute player Emer Mayock. In addition to his performance schedule, Eamon has taught at numerous music programs including the Augusta Heritage Center, the Catskills Irish Arts Week, and the Alaska Irish Music Camp. In 2004, he and Patrick Ourceau released a live recording, Live at Mona’s, documenting their many years hosting a Monday night session on New York’s Lower East Side.

PADDY KEENAN
Paddy comes from a family of ‘Travellers’ steeped in traditional music; both his father and grandfather were uilleann pipers, and his own flowing, open-fingered style of playing can be traced directly from the style of the great Travelling pipers. In the mid-1970s The Bothy Band burst onto Ireland’s music scene and forever changed the face of Irish traditional music. Paddy was one of the band’s founding members and one of its driving forces. The virtuosity and ferocity of his playing led to his being described as “the Jimi Hendrix of the pipes”, and his style has continued to mature in the intervening years as he has pursued a solo career. Generally acknowledged as the most accomplished uilleann piper performing today, he is certainly one of the most brilliant musicians of his generation. Paddy has taught at several schools, including The Willie Clancy Summer School in Co. Clare, Ireland; Gaelic Roots; The Celtic College in Goderich, Ontario; and The National Folk Festival in Canberra, Australia. He also frequently gives workshops at festivals and while on tour, including workshops for pipes; on reed-making; for whistles/low whistles; and more general workshops that include a combination of traditional instruments. www.paddykeenan.com

JOHN SKELTON
John Skelton is considered one of the finest flute players currently performing, and is probably best known to American audiences from his work with The House Band, with whom he has recorded six albums on the Green Linnet label. He has also released a solo album, One At a Time. John has performed at most of the major folk festivals in North America and Europe including Vancouver, Edmonton, Edinburgh, Sidmouth and Philadelphia. He is an experienced teacher, and has taught at the Augusta Heritage Center, summer schools in the United States, Europe and Africa, and eight previous years at the Gathering. In addition to his background in Irish music, John is also well-schooled in the music of Brittany. He visits there regularly, and is a highly-regarded player of the Breton bombarde, a double-reed folk shawm. NPR’s Thistle and Shamrock described him as “the finest bombarde player outside of Brittany.” He also plays the ‘Piston’ (Low Bombarde) and the ‘Veuze’ (the bagpipe of eastern Brittany). John acts as the ‘Host’ of Celtic Week.

MATTHEW OLWELL
Since 1996, Matthew Olwell has been performing and teaching as a percussionist and dancer at festivals and theaters across North America and Europe, and has recently accompanied James Leva, Danny Knicely, and John Skelton. He began attending festivals and music events at an early age with the Olwell family flute business, and in 2005, recorded an album with his brother Aaron Olwell and their band, Hell on the Nine Mile. He has studied percussion with Myron Bretholtz, Benoit Bourque and Steve Bloom, and with some of the finest teachers in percussive dance, including Donny Golden, Eileen Carson, The Fiddle Puppets, and Liam Harney. Matthew danced for nine years with the Maryland-based Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble, and in 2006 he co-founded Good Foot Dance Company. He now teaches and performs often in community arts events in his native Charlottesville, VA. Matthew has shared the stage with Lúnasa, Eileen Ivers, Matapat, David Munnelly, Uncle Earl, Liz Carroll, The Chieftains, Otis Taylor, Tim O’Brien, Corey Harris, and Bassekou Kouyate. He has taught at the Augusta Heritage workshops, Pinewoods, Timber Ridge, and Ogontz, and is excited to be coming to Swannanoa this summer.

ANDREA BEATON
One of Cape Breton’s most promising young fiddlers, Andrea Beaton is the youngest of generations of Beaton musicians. With the power of her bowing, the drive and swing of her timing, and the crispness of her attack, she’s making a name for herself in dance halls, concerts, ceilidhs, and festivals well beyond Cape Breton island. Her father, Kinnon, and grandfather, Donald Angus Beaton are some of the tradition’s most influential fiddlers, and her uncle, Buddy MacMaster, and cousin, Natalie MacMaster are musicians of international stature. Her music is at once her own and deeply rooted in the tradition associated with the Mabou Coal Mines. And, like her father and grandfather, she is a composer in the tradition, adding fine new music to the island’s repertoire. She’s released three CDs including her latest, The Tap Session, recorded live at a pub during a tour of Scotland, and is featured on the Smithsonian Folkways Recordings release, Cape Breton Fiddle and Piano Music: The Beaton Family of Mabou,” along with members of her extended family. www.andreabeaton.com

KEVIN CRAWFORD
Born in Birmingham, England, Kevin Crawford’s early life was one long journey into Irish music and Co. Clare, to where he eventually moved while in his 20’s. He was a founding member of Moving Cloud, the Clare-based band who recorded such critically-acclaimed albums as Moving Cloud and Foxglove, and he has also recorded with Grianin, Raise the Rafters, Joe Derrane, and Sean Tyrrell, and appears on the 1994 recording, The Sanctuary Sessions. Kevin now tours the world with Ireland’s cutting-edge traditional band, Lúnasa, called by some the “Bothy Band of the 21st Century,”with six ground-breaking albums to their credit: Lúnasa, Otherworld, The Merry Sisters of Fate, Redwood, The Kinnity Sessions and Sé. A virtuoso flute player, Kevin has also recorded several solo albums including The ‘D’ Flute Album, In Good Company, and his most recent, a duo recording with piper Cillian Vallely. www.lunasa.ie

ROBIN BULLOCK
Called a “Celtic guitar god” by the Baltimore City Paper, Robin Bullock is a prolific composer, highly respected instructor, and virtuoso performer on 6- and 12-string guitars, mandolin, cittern and piano. A founding member of the INDIE Award-winning acoustic world-music trio, Helicon, Robin’s solo career has earned him three Washington Area Music Association WAMMIE Awards, a Governor’s Award from the Maryland State Arts Council, and a featured broadcast on NPR’s Thistle & Shamrock. His recorded work includes seven critically-acclaimed solo CDs and four collaborative projects including Celtic Guitar Summit with fellow Guitar Week staffer Steve Baughman, which was honored by Acoustic Guitar magazine with an “Editor’s Pick” as one of the top CDs of 2003. His new CD, Rosewood Castle, continues his exploration of Celtic music for solo and duo guitar, featuring duets with guitar greats Alex de Grassi, Tony McManus, John Doyle, Steve Baughman and Al Petteway. A native of Washington, DC, Robin now lives in Tripleval, France, and tours and records on both sides of the ocean. This is his fourteenth Gathering. www.robinbullock.com

EILEEN MULLIGAN EVANS
Eileen Mulligan Evans has been involved in Irish Step Dance for nearly 40 years. She trained in New York and danced competitively in the Northeast and Canada for many years. Eileen is recognized by the An Coimisiun Le Rinci Gaelacha and holds the T.C.R.G. teacher’s certificate. She founded the Mulligan School of Irish Dance in 1974 in Atlanta, Georgia, and their members have traveled as a performing group throughout the world, competing, educating and sharing their Irish culture. Eileen was the honorary Grand Marshal of the 1998 Atlanta St. Patrick’s Day parade and was named the Atlanta “Gael of the Year” by the Mayor of the city. Eileen believes that we are all given a gift by God and it is our job to share that gift with others. She teaches that if you dance with your heart it will follow into your toes! www.mulliganschool.com

MARTIN QUINN
Martin Quinn comes from a family of musicians and raconteurs of traditional stories with roots in Co. Armagh. He took up the accordion in 1981, and with a highly refined, unique style, he is regarded as one of Ireland’s finest exponents of the instrument. Since 1994, Martin has toured Europe and the US, appearing at numerous festivals in France, Finland, Britain and Germany. In addition to his solo appearances and those with his wife, Angelina Carberry, Martin also performs with the traditional group na Dorsa, with whom he has recorded two CDs, and has also toured with Lá Lugh, and with players such as fiddler Gerry O’Connor and Gerry Harrington of the group, Doon. Martin has been featured on TV and radio at home in Ireland and abroad, and his recording credits include tracks on Paul Bradley’s fine solo album, The Atlantic Roar, and composer Josephine Keegan’s double CD, Lifeswork. In 1996, Martin received the TTCT Diploma from the Irish Department of Education and Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Eireann for teaching the two-row button accordion. www.reeltrad.com

DARREN MALONEY
Darren Maloney, from Co. Cavan, is regarded by critics and peers alike as one of the most outstanding tenor banjoists to emerge in Irish music. Mick Moloney calls his abilities “truly remarkable.” His debut CD, Who?, was called “one of the best albums of the year and sets a benchmark for not just future banjo albums, but future independent releases”, by Geoff Wallis of fRoots magazine. In May 2006, joined a group of world-class string musicians including Béla Fleck, Edgar Meyer, Chris Thile, Mike Marshall and Jerry Douglas for workshops and a performance on that most famous of musical stages – Carnegie Hall. Citing a technical expertise that is “beyond compare,” the prestigious Deering Banjo Company invited Darren to become the first Irish banjo player to endorse their instruments, joining such fellow endorsers as Béla Fleck, Rod Stewart and Garth Brooks. www.darrenmaloney.com

DENISA RULLMOSS
Denisa (known as “The Queen” to kids everywhere) will once again bring her exuberant, creative energies to the Gathering. She is a multi-talented and innovative organizer who has managed to retain a child’s viewpoint on the world while remaining a fully-functioning adult! Denisa is a part time Nanny, homeschooling mother, and Director for the Lake Eden Arts Festival (LEAF) Kid’s Village. Shaving cream, parachutes, bubbles and squirt guns are the tools of her trade, as she provides wild & wacky games and activities for families and kids everywhere. Her past accomplishments include co-founding the newspaper Mothertongue: A Progressive Parenting Source; Panther Paws, a public school newspaper for and by kids (funded by a grant from the Asheville City Schools Foundation), Kindred Kids, the Mothertongue paper for kids, and the newsletter HOME (Homeschooling Opens Minds Everyday). As a kid’s crafts & games specialist Denisa is excited to bring her silly songs, cool crafts and good times to the Gathering for the 16th year, as she teaches and coordinates the Children’s Program during Traditional Song/Fiddle, Celtic and Old-Time Weeks.