Milwaukee Irish Fest Summer School Instructors
Note: All times are listed in CENTRAL TIME ZONE. Thank you!
Gerry O'Connor
Instructor Website: https://gerryoconnor.net/
Teaching Intermediate and Advanced Irish Fiddle Classes (T-W-Th) and Friday Fiddle Workshop (Friday only)
Gerry O'Connor's professional music career has brought him to all corners of the earth playing the music of the South Ulster in a variety of musical combinations. Taught by his mother Rose, Gerry played with and was influenced by the great Sligo fiddle player John Joe Gardiner in his teens. He first toured North America 1985 with "Kinvara" (Dolores Keane, John Faulkner and Jackie Daly) and was founder member the following year of Skylark (Len Graham, Garry O'Briain, and Andrew Mac Namara whose place was later taken by Mairtin O'Connor. The band recorded 4 albums in its ten-year history on the Claddagh Label. Lá Lugh, co-founded by Gerry and Eithne Ni Uallacháin signed to the Sony Classical for their fourth album Senex Puer. Gerry’s solo fiddle album "Journeyman" was selected as one of the top five albums of 2004. With Breton Guitarist Gilles le Bigot. The Breton Irsh Duet has delighted audiences in Europe and Australia with their musical arrangements of rare traditional melodies, and their live album “ In Concert ” (LUGCD963) has received universal critical acclaim.
Gerry has also recorded with the Irish Baroque Orchestra, the Early music voice trio White Raven (2007) and recently produced a number of highly regarded albums for various established traditional artists, including an album featuring the compositions of Sean Nugent. With Gabriel McArdle and Martin Quinn he released “Jig Away the Donkey (2009) In 2010 Gerry compiled and produced “I have Travelled this Country” the unrecorded song collection of Cathal McConnell (Book and DVD). With Martin Quinn, Nuala Kennedy and Gilles le Bigot, Gerry released “Oirialla” (2011), music and song of South Ulster