Irish Traditional Music with McDermott's Handy

Is the young musician in your house looking to find a peer group that shares their interest in playing Irish music? Does she want to learn new tunes? Every month Dennis and Kathy and Chris Brennan-Hagy run a session for young musicians at the Irish Center, Carpenter and Emlen Streets in Mt. Airy, Philadelphia from 1-3pm.

We have players of all ages, instruments, and skill levels participate in the session.

The first hour is devoted to teaching one or two new tunes. Players of all levels are welcome. All tunes are taught “by ear” in small groups. Written music is provided at the end for those who want it. At the end of the hour, all the musicians reassemble in front of the fireplace for the session. Each player gets to kick off the tune of their choice and anybody who knows it joins in. Many of the tunes we've already taught can be found in Dennis' Tunes, and lists of tunes from previous sessions can be found at the Young Musician's Session Tune site.

The session is an outgrowth of the first Irish-American Children’s Weekend the teachers originally coordinated for the Garden State Discovery Museum in 1998. The event proved to be so much fun for all the youngsters involved that the teachers wanted to keep the diverse grouping of musicians connected in some way.

"We have a wide range of ages who come" Kathy says, "including some adults who just want to learn some tunes. There’s always room for one more. “The sessions keep getting better and better as more tunes are learned".”

The session is held on the second Sunday of the month from 1-3pm (except in June, when a whole bunch of us are going up to the fleadh in New York). The summer sessions will be barbecues at the teachers’ houses. There is no charge but we ask parents to bring some type of refreshment for the break. Call Kathy at 856-795-7637 or Chris Brennan-Hagy at 215-233-2077 if you want more details. We have a Next Generation email list going to keep everybody up to date on the session. To get on the list, please email Dennis at gormley@hslc.org.

Performances by the Next Generation

From time to time, the Next Generation musicians do public performances. They have been a regular performing troupe at the annual Philadelphia Ceili Group Irish Music and Dance Festival. Besides their annual show at the Garden State Discovery Museum for the Irish-American Children’s Weekend they have also performed at the Waterfront Arts Festival in Camden (2001) and the Celtic River Festival in Gloucester (2001) and a number of other local community events.

Monthly Next Generation Session

Performances by the Next Generation