John McCormick picked up the bagpipes at the age of 11, taking lessons from Macalester College pipe band leader John Ford, and trying his best to keep his saffron-colored kilt a se- cret from his classmates. A leading member of the Brian Boru Irish Pipe Band long before he could drive himself to band practice, McCormick’s father, Ed, was even dragooned into service as the group’s drum major.
By his teens and twenties, McCormick had become a regular at the céilís and kitchen sessions that rose up in the wake of the folk revival, soon falling under the spell of box player Martin McHugh, a master artist who came to Minnesota from Castlerea, County Roscommon. By his thirties, McCormick was learning all he could from McHugh, who loaned him his first single row Hohner accordion, and sent him home with hours of cassette tapes that he rewound and replayed “millions and millions of times.”
Playing at pubs and stages from O’Gara’s to the Half Time Rec to gigs with his band, Barra, McCormick’s artistic skill and quiet leadership have earned so many respectful admirers that the Irish Music and Dance Association dedicated an evening in November 2016 to honoring him for all he’s done to keep Irish music alive and growing in the Twin Cities. But even those four decades of bona fides are still no guarantee of a good seat on Sunday night at Keegan’s, home to a series of increasingly crowded trad sessions for learners, advanced and master players.
“You can’t be late to that session or you’ll never be able to sit down,” says McCormick, who is pleased to see so many students from the Center for Irish Music pulling up chairs to play along. “There was a time when I’d look out on the crowd and it was just a lot of gray hairs like me, but now there are so many young people taking it on, you know the music’s not going to disappear. It’s one of the few places where age doesn’t matter. However old or young you are, if you have a tune to share, you’re always welcome.”
HARMONIC CONVERGENCE
Tight seating at Twin Cities’ trad sessions is one of the signs the Center for Irish Music is making good on its mission of handing down the tradition to the next generation. Not only has CIM’s student enrollment doubled since 2009, ensemble groups have multiplied from one to eight active groups. Well-versed in a deep repertoire of traditional tunes, many of CIM’s most engaged musicians now play multiple instruments. All of that playing and practicing is paying off in growing outreach performances from CIM players and instructors, who reached 10,000 listeners at venues ranging from small coffee house concerts to main stage performances at the Landmark Center and the Irish Fair of Minnesota.
In fact, there are so many adult students taking lessons that the CIM re- invented the standard recital experience this year and hosted a rollicking and informal “Open Mic” night emceed by CIM instructor Todd Menton, who, along with other instructors, offered his own bodhrán and mandolin accom- paniment to students still too shy to go it alone.
“One of the most exciting things we’ve been seeing is the growth of CIM’s adult ensembles,” says Norah Rendell, CIM’s executive director. “It takes quite a commitment for a group of busy, overworked adults to make the time to get together, practice challenging new tunes, and to keep raising their sights artistically, but amazingly we have four adult groups who are doing that every week and loving it.”
An Luan, CIM’s longest-running adult group, has made that commitment to the music for the last seven years, and like their counterparts in the newer Open Sky Ensemble perform frequently in the community at coffee shops and community events. Several advanced youth players who graduated out of the Advanced Youth Ensemble have also helped to give new life to the hard-charging Young Adult Ensemble. This year, instructor Dáithí Sproule started up CIM’s newest group “Uisce Gorm” (Irish for the “Blue Water” that gives Minnesota its name), enlisting several new adult studentsto play together.
“It’s kind of magical what playing together as a group can do for a music student of any age, really,” says CIM instructor Mary Va- norny, who coaches the Starlings, an inter- mediate group of youth musicians. “Playing together and getting into a rhythmic groove with other musicians is exactly what Irish music is all about.”
Those skills were on great display at theMidwest Fleadh Cheoil in St. Louis in May,where 27 students and their families traveledto play and compete. While CIM’s youthstudents took home an impressive 35 medalsin solo, duo and trio competitions, it was thesuccess of the CIM’s ensemble groups—in-cluding first place finishes for both the U15ceili band and the U18 Grúpa Cheoil—that inspired more than a dozen CIM families to venture to Ennis for the Fleadh Ceoil na hÉireann in August.
“We’ve debated about going before, but it took a harmonic convergence like this to make it happen,” says CIM instructor and Advanced Youth Ensemble leader Brian Miller. “They’re such a strong group of players that sending them to compete as a group just seemed like an opportunity we couldn’t pass up.”
CIM’s community agreed, and quickly pitched in to support a parent-led Go Fund Me campaign, a board challenge match on CIM’s GiveMN page, and youth players who busked at Grand Old Day and other high-traffic community events. The combined efforts raised enough funding to send Rendell on the trip to rehearse and direct the three compet- ing ensemble groups, while covering the full cost of tuition for CIM students to attend Scoil Éigse, an immersive four-day music workshop taught by traditional master artists.
CIM students started their week in County Clare, a region known for its rich musical heritage, exploring everything from the late night session culture of O’Connell Street, to the rugged landscape of the nearby Burren and the Cliffs of Moher. By weekend, as more than 450,000 visitors descended on Ennis for the Fleadh competitions and concerts, CIM students raced between more than a dozen per- formance venues, receiving warm applause for having traveled all the way “from St. Paul’s” to be part of the international festival. “It’s one thing to be part of a great community of kids learning this music on Prior Avenue, but I think going to the Fleadh proved to them that they’re actually part of something even bigger and more meaningful,” says CIM parent Nick Coleman. “Irish music is a living tradition with a deep sense of place, and being part of all of that was an experience they’re going to be unpacking for a long time.”
PUTTING MINNESOTA ON THE MAP
While traveling to the All-Ireland Fleadh marked a new mile- stone for the school, bringing Ireland to Minnesota is a tradition with deep roots at the CIM. In June,the school celebrated the 10th annual Minnesota Irish Music Weekend with an impressive roster of master artists who represented a wealth of regional Irish in- fluences, from accordion player and singer Méabh Ní Bheaglaoich, a member of a renowned multi-generation family of trad musicians in the Dingle Peninsula, to Colm O’Donnell, an acclaimed sean-nós singer and flute player from County Sligo.
“I was very lucky to come from a placethat’s renowned for traditional Irishmusic,” says O’Donnell, a working sheepfarmer who was initially reluctant tomake the trip to Minnesota during theheight of lambing season. “I’m from theland, working on the land, and the way I approach the music is inspired by that. But I was really taken by the level of dedication that’s here in the younger generation, and the good work that’s
gone into teaching them. I discovered that I could teach them a tune without playing an instrument. I just diddled the tune, they diddled it back, and picked up their instruments and played. It was in their heads before it was in their hands.”
Good reviews of CIM’s students and teaching artists are music to the ears of board chair Mike O’Connor, who says that the whole community deserves cred- it for a big year of growth at the Center for Irish Music. “If you spend any time sitting in the CIM lobby on a busy week- night, you know there are great things happening at this school,” he says. “But it’s very affirming to see us fulfilling our mission out in the wider world, whether it’s seeing a great set of adult ensemble performers at the Irish Fair, or sending our next generation of students off to play and compete in Ennis. We’re just a small part of a much bigger movement that’s keeping traditional music alive, and the Center for Irish Music is proud to be a player.”
Written for the Center for Irish Music's 2017 Annual Report
