One of the Blas accompaniment tutors, Dennis Cahill, playing with Thomas Bartlett.

Blas International Summer School

Concerts at Blas this year at the Irish World Academy at the University of Limerick feature Iarla Ó Lionáird, Steve Cooney, Tom Doorley, Derek Hickey and guests on Wednesday 27 June, and Breanndán Ó Beaglaoich, Seamus Begley, Michelle Mulcahy and guests on Wednesday 4 July.

The Journal Of Music

The two-week Blas International Summer School of Irish Traditional Music and Dance returns to the Irish World Academy at the University of Limerick for the sixteenth successive year this 25 June – July 6th 2012.

Directed by Ernestine Healy, the school draws students from all over the world, who apart from tuition and master classes, can expect a whole range of activities including lectures on Irish Traditional music topics, field-trips, sessions, Irish language classes (facilitated through the Aonad na Gaeilge), lunchtime and evening concerts, céilís, and above all, the opportunity to share tunes with leading traditional musicians.

The summer school will be launched this year by Aodán O’Dubhghaill, Director of RTÉ lyric fm, on Monday, 25 June at 5.30pm.

On Tuesday 26 June at 5pm, Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh, Nell Ní Chróinín and Eamonn Costello come together for a discussion entitled ‘Irish Language Singers in a Contemporary Context’.

Performer, composer, academic and teacher, Dr. Mel Mercier, will deliver this year’s Francis Roche Memorial Lecture entitled ‘Making Music Together: Father and Son Duets’, on Thursday, 28 June at 5pm in the Tower Theatre at the Irish World Academy.

The Blas public concerts feature Iarla Ó Lionáird, Steve Cooney, Tom Doorley, Derek Hickey and guests on Wednesday, 27 June, and Breanndán Ó Beaglaoich, Seamus Begley, Michelle Mulcahy and guests on Wednesday, 4 July.

Tutors for Blas 2012 include Dennis Cahill, Dónal Lunny, Steve Cooney, Aileen Dillane, Alan Colfer, Ciaran Coughlan and Francis Ward (accompaniment), Martin Hayes, Siobhán Peoples, John Carty and Matt Cranitch (fiddle), Niall Keegan, Kevin Crawford, Tom Doorley, Garry Shannon and Majella Bartley (flute), Derek Hickey, Danny O Mahony and Sean Óg Graham (accordion), Colin Dunne, Catherine Foley, Mats Melin and Orfhlaith Ní Bhriain, Breandán de Gallaí & Michael Ryan (dance), Noirín Ní Riain, Iarla Ó Lionáird, Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh, Sandra Joyce and Seamus Begley (song), and Jim Higgins and Mel Mercier (bodhrán).

For further information email Ernestine.Healy [at] ul.ie or call 061 202653.

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