EAMON O'LEARY
While growing up in Dublin, Eamon developed an interest in Irish music through his friendship with the Mayock family, noted traditional musicians originally from County Mayo. When he moved to New York City in 1992, he met guitarist John Doyle and fiddle player Patrick Ourceau, among others, and has since become a fixture in the city’s thriving Irish music scene. Eamon has toured extensively throughout Europe and North America, performing with many of Irish music’s great players, including Paddy Keenan, Mick Moloney, Tommy Peoples, and James Keane, and has recorded with singer Susan McKeown and flute player Emer Mayock. In addition to his performance schedule, Eamon has taught at numerous music programs including the Augusta Heritage Center, the Catskills Irish Arts Week, and the Alaska Irish Music Camp. In 2004, he and Patrick Ourceau released a live recording, Live at Mona’s, documenting their many years hosting a Monday night session on New York’s Lower East Side.

MICHAEL COONEY
It seems like Michael Cooney was destined to play the pipes. He was raised in a family of Highland pipers from Co. Tipperary. His father, Martin, and his uncles played in the Sean Tracey Pipe Band in Littleton, a group that his grandfather and great uncles founded. At a young age, Michael took a liking to the whistle, and his father, eager to expose him to as much music as possible, began driving Michael all over the country for instruction from such players as Dan Cleary, Sean Ryan, Paddy O’Brien, Pat Lyons, and Niall Cleere. When he wasn’t studying firsthand, he was listening to his dad’s old tapes of Johnny Doran, Willie Clancy, Felix Doran, Leo Rowsome, Patsy Touhey, and Seamus Ennis, and also Planxty and the Bothy Band, two groups from the ’70s folk revival that featured pipers Liam Og Flynn and Paddy Keenan. In the 1980s, Michael “Piper” Cooney won multiple All-Ireland Championships on pipes and whistle, and moved to the United States, where he had the opportunity to play with more legendary musicians, including Andy McGann, Paddy Reynolds, and Joe Burke. He has released two CDs, A Stones Throw, and his latest, Just Piping. www.michaelpipercooney.com

JOHN SKELTON
John Skelton is considered one of the finest flute players currently performing, and is probably best known to American audiences from his work with The House Band, with whom he has recorded six albums on the Green Linnet label. He has also released a solo album, One At a Time. John has performed at most of the major folk festivals in North America and Europe including Vancouver, Edmonton, Edinburgh, Sidmouth and Philadelphia. He is an experienced teacher, and has taught at the Augusta Heritage Center, summer schools in the United States, Europe and Africa, and eight previous years at the Gathering. In addition to his background in Irish music, John is also well-schooled in the music of Brittany. He visits there regularly, and is a highly-regarded player of the Breton bombarde, a double-reed folk shawm. NPR’s Thistle and Shamrock described him as “the finest bombarde player outside of Brittany.” He also plays the ‘Piston’ (Low Bombarde) and the ‘Veuze’ (the bagpipe of eastern Brittany). John acts as the ‘Host’ of Celtic Week.

MATTHEW OLWELL
Since 1996, Matthew Olwell has been performing and teaching as a percussionist and dancer at festivals and theaters across North America and Europe, and has recently accompanied James Leva, Danny Knicely, and John Skelton. He began attending festivals and music events at an early age with the Olwell family flute business, and in 2005, recorded an album with his brother Aaron Olwell and their band, Hell on the Nine Mile. He has studied percussion with Myron Bretholtz, Benoit Bourque and Steve Bloom, and with some of the finest teachers in percussive dance, including Donny Golden, Eileen Carson, The Fiddle Puppets, and Liam Harney. Matthew danced for nine years with the Maryland-based Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble, and in 2006 he co-founded Good Foot Dance Company. He now teaches and performs often in community arts events in his native Charlottesville, VA. Matthew has shared the stage with Lúnasa, Eileen Ivers, Matapat, David Munnelly, Uncle Earl, Liz Carroll, The Chieftains, Otis Taylor, Tim O’Brien, Corey Harris, and Bassekou Kouyate. He has taught at the Augusta Heritage workshops, Pinewoods, Timber Ridge, and Ogontz, and is excited to be coming to Swannanoa this summer.

KIMBERLEY FRASER
Kimberley Fraser was born on Cape Breton Island and nurtured within its rich musical heritage. She first impressed audiences at the age of three with her step-dancing talents, and soon thereafter took up both the fiddle and the piano. Still in her 20s, Kimberley’s career is already distinguished. She has performed around the world, from touring Sweden with Cherish the Ladies, to performing at the Celtic Connections festival in Scotland and entertaining NATO troops in Afghanistan. With two recordings to her credit, she has shared the stage with such notables as Alasdair Fraser, Lúnasa and Danú. Kimberley holds an honours degree in Celtic Studies and a minor in Jazz from St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, and is also a graduate of the Berklee College of Music. An advocate for the importance of traditional music education, she has been a long-time instructor at Cape Breton’s Gaelic College and Ceilidh Trail Music School as well as teaching at the Valley of the Moon Fiddle Camp, the American Festival of Fiddle Tunes, and the North Atlantic Fiddle Convention in Aberdeen, Scotland. Following the success of her award-winning recording, Falling on New Ground, Kimberley is currently working on her third album. www.kimberleyfraser.com

KEVIN CRAWFORD
Born in Birmingham, England, Kevin Crawford’s early life was one long journey into Irish music and Co. Clare, to where he eventually moved while in his 20’s. He was a founding member of Moving Cloud, the Clare-based band who recorded such critically-acclaimed albums as Moving Cloud and Foxglove, and he has also recorded with Grianin, Raise the Rafters, Joe Derrane, and Sean Tyrrell, and appears on the 1994 recording, The Sanctuary Sessions. Kevin now tours the world with Ireland’s cutting-edge traditional band, Lúnasa, called by some the “Bothy Band of the 21st Century,”with six ground-breaking albums to their credit: Lúnasa, Otherworld, The Merry Sisters of Fate, Redwood, The Kinnity Sessions and Sé. A virtuoso flute player, Kevin has also recorded several solo albums including The ‘D’ Flute Album, In Good Company, and his most recent, a duo recording with piper Cillian Vallely. www.lunasa.ie

ROBIN BULLOCK
Called a “Celtic guitar god” by the Baltimore City Paper, Robin Bullock is a prolific composer, highly respected instructor, and virtuoso performer on 6- and 12-string guitars, mandolin, cittern and piano. A founding member of the INDIE Award-winning acoustic world-music trio, Helicon, Robin’s solo career has earned him three Washington Area Music Association WAMMIE Awards, a Governor’s Award from the Maryland State Arts Council, and a featured broadcast on NPR’s Thistle & Shamrock. His recorded work includes eight critically-acclaimed solo CDs and three collaborative projects including Celtic Guitar Summit with fellow Guitar Week staffer Steve Baughman, which was honored by Acoustic Guitar magazine with an “Editor’s Pick” as one of the top CDs of 2003. In addition to his solo work, Robin also tours regularly as sideman with Grammy-winning folk legend, Tom Paxton, and is featured on Tom’s CD/DVD, Live at Huntingdon Hall. A native of Washington, DC, Robin now lives in Tripleval, France, and tours and records on both sides of the ocean. This is his sixteenth Gathering. www.robinbullock.com

ERIN DUFFY MARTORANO
Erin Duffy Martorano was first introduced to Irish dance 20 years ago and never looked back. She has danced competitively at the regional, national, and world levels, and is recognized by An Coimisiun le Rinci Gaelacha (Irish Dance Commission) as a Teagascóir Choimisiúin le Rinci Gaelacha (Commission-Certified Irish Dance Teacher). She founded Scoil Rince Ni Dubhthaigh (The Duffy School of Irish Dance) in 2007 in Maryland, and her school is steadily growing and gaining recognition in the world of Irish dance. Erin believes deeply in sharing her love of Irish dance and culture, and is excited to be a part of her first Swannanoa Gathering. www.duffyirishdance.com

DAMIEN CONNOLLY
Damien began learning the accordion from his father Martin when he was 11 years old, and at age 16, took up the fiddle, under the tutelage of his step-mother Maureen Glynn. He competed in the Fleadhanna (Irish Music Competitions) throughout his teenage years, and in 1997, won the Under-18 All Ireland Championship on both accordion and melodeon. His first accordion and melodeon CD, Tippin Away, was generously praised by renowned accordion players Joe Burke, Joe Derrane and Bobby Gardiner. Damien now resides in Fairfield, CT, where he enjoys the company and musicianship of his uncle Seamus, Director of Irish Music at Boston College, and one of the Gathering’s Master Music Makers. Damien has performed at prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall, NYU and Boston College, and is the founder/leader of the Open Intermediate Session in Fairfield, which gives musicians an opportunity to play at a more comfortable pace. He gives private fiddle and accordion lessons from his home and has led music workshops at a number of Irish music festivals. In 2008, Damien published The Irish Accordion Tutor, Vol. I, Intermediate-Advanced, with an accompanying DVD, which was immediately recognized as one of the finest Irish button accordion tutors available. He is currently in the process of recording his second CD, due out in 2011. www.damienconnolly.com

DARREN MALONEY
Darren Maloney, from Co. Cavan, is regarded by critics and peers alike as one of the most outstanding tenor banjoists to emerge in Irish music. Mick Moloney calls his abilities “truly remarkable.” His debut CD, Who?, was called “one of the best albums of the year and sets a benchmark for not just future banjo albums, but future independent releases”, by Geoff Wallis of fRoots magazine. In May 2006, joined a group of world-class string musicians including Béla Fleck, Edgar Meyer, Chris Thile, Mike Marshall and Jerry Douglas for workshops and a performance on that most famous of musical stages – Carnegie Hall. Citing a technical expertise that is “beyond compare,” the prestigious Deering Banjo Company invited Darren to become the first Irish banjo player to endorse their instruments, joining such fellow endorsers as Béla Fleck, Rod Stewart and Garth Brooks. www.darrenmaloney.com