Limerick family to receive premier trad music award
A TALENTED Limerick family are to be honoured for how they have “advanced, strengthened, and preserved traditional music in Ireland”.
The TG4 Gradam Ceoil Awards are back for their 26th year and the Music Group award this year goes to Mick, Louise, Michelle Mulcahy from Abbeyfeale, who are renowned traditional musicians in their own right, but have come together to form a family group.
Having put out four albums together, the terrific family represent the styles and repertoires of Sliabh Luachra, Clare and East Galway.
Mick is a renowned traditional musician who plays four systems of accordion, as well as melodeon and concertina. He was a member of the Brosna Céilí Band who won the All-Ireland title in 1972, and is also a composer and recording musician who released two solo albums, Mick Mulcahy, and Mick Mulcahy and Friends.
Louise began playing the tin whistle at age five and later moved onto the flute, with Matt Molloy and Eamon Cotter as significant influences on her style.
At age 13 she started to learn the uilleann pipes and is now a highly regarded musician in a largely male-dominated instrument. She is a performing musician, a tutor in the pipes and flute, and released a solo album, Tuning the Road, in 2014.
In 2021, she was awarded the Arts Council Markievicz Award, in honour of Constance de Markievicz, and in 2022, she was the winner of the Arts Council and National Concert Hall Liam O'Flynn Award. The same year, she also presented Mná na bPíob on TG4 – a feature-length documentary film about a group of lesser-known female pipers.
Michelle also learned the whistle from age five and went on to play the button accordion, concertina, harp, fiddle, piano and melodeon. In 2006 she was awarded the Young Musician Award at the TG4 Gradam Ceoil.
In 2007, she performed on the Bill Whelan album The Connemara Suite alongside Zoë Conway and the Irish Chamber Orchestra.
She is also an academic and her PhD research topic exploring the harp traditions of Burma and Ireland is the first of its kind.
Gradam Ceoil TG4 is the premier annual traditional music awards scheme and academy.
Not a competition, but rather an event with recipients selected by an independent panel of adjudicators, who are presented with a specially commissioned piece by leading sculptor John Coll as well as a small stipend.
Other award groups include, Musician, Singer, Young Musician, Lifetime Achievement, Composer, and Outstanding Contribution.
Speaking at the announcement Proinsias Ní Ghráinne, Commissioning Editor for TG4 said, “TG4 is delighted to honour and pay tribute to such remarkable talent for the 26th year of Gradam Ceoil.
“We hope that Gradam continues to be a marker for future artistic excellence across all areas of our music and song.
“Congratulations to all of the recipients. We look forward to celebrating with them and welcoming audiences from near and far on April 23”.
Other nominees for the Gradam Ceoil awards include, Mick O'Brien, Síle Denvir, Méabh Smyth, Fintan Vallelly, and Maurice Lennon.
As of yet, the recipient for Outstanding Contribution has not yet been chosen, but will be announced in early April.
The ceremony for the TG4 Gradam Ceoil 2023 will be broadcast live on TG4, from University Concert Hall, at the University of Limerick on Sunday, April 23 at 9.30pm.
At this live televised concert, the 2023 Gradam recipients will be joined in performance on stage by their own special musical guests in a unique, star-studded line-up of musicians and award-presenters.