Uncommon Ground ^ Sean Cleland
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Sean Cleland
Sean Cleland is the director of the Irish Music School of Chicago, which he founded in 2004. He is an accomplished Irish fiddler and teacher.
Sean grew up on the North side of Chicago in an
Irish-American household. He started violin lessons at age 7, and at age 9, heard traditional Irish music for the first time at a one of the first North American tours of Comhaltas Ceoltori Eireann. After hearing the fiery fiddle playing of Paddy Glackin, Sean decided that that was the music that he wanted to play.
Sean joined a group of musicians that gathered
together every Thursday evening to informally play at a Chicago Park district field house. And at the age of 14, Sean started Irish fiddle lessons with Liz
Carroll.
In 1981, Sean co-founded the band Baal Tinne. In 1988, he founded the Irish-influenced folk-rock band The Drovers. The Drovers appeared in two major Hollywood films Backdraft and Blink, contributing songs and tunes to the soundtrack.
In 1998, Sean served as musical director of the
production of J.M. Synnge's The Playboy of the Western World, which was a joint production between the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago and the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, CT.
In 2000, Sean co-founded the traditional Irish band
Bohola with accordion virtuoso Jimmy Keane and
singer-bouzouki player Pat Broaders. The band recorded four critically acclaimed albums and toured extensively in North America and Australia from 2000-2006.
Sean has also performed and toured with the
traditional Irish band Aengus, The Green Fields of
America, led by Mick Moloney, was the original fiddle player and later Musical Director for Chicago's acclaimed the Trinity Irish Dancers, and played with noted traditional Irish singer Robbie O'Connell. He has been a noted and in-demand Feis musician since the mid-1980's.
Since 2005 Sean has been the Chairman of The Irish Musicians Association of Chicago, an organization founded in 1951 and dedicated to the playing, preserving and teaching of irish music.
Sean taught fiddle and Irish mixed-instrumental
ensembles at the Old Town School of Folk Music from 1997 to 2004. He has also taught Irish fiddle at the Catskills Irish Arts Week in NY, the Goderich, Ontario Festival, the California Traditional Arts Festival,the Milwaukee Irish Fest summer school. |
Visit the Sean Cleland web-site |
| Email Sean Cleland |
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Uncommon Ground Past Show Dates |
| 1995-03-19 (4857 days) |
Karen Anderson |
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Nora O'Connor |
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Tony Ventura |
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Sean Cleland |
| 1994-08-05 (5083 days) |
Sean Cleland |
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