Diarmuid Ó Meachair and Brian McGrath

Diarmuid Ó Meachair is an Accordion player from Cúil Aodha, Co. Cork. He is also an accomplished Melodeon player and sean-nós singer. He was awarded the prestigious TG4 Young Musician of the year award in 2022. Diarmuid is part of the teaching staff at the Department of Music in UCC. He is the new Professor of Irish Music in College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts.

Diarmuid has released 3 solo albums in the past two years, “Siúl na Slí” (December, 2022), “Melodeon Medleys” (July, 2023) and “Diarmuid Ó Meachair” in (July 2024). He was nominated for 2 RTÉ Folk Awards in 2023, “Best instrumentalist” and “Best emerging artist”.

A native Irish speaker from Cúil Aodha in the Múscraí Gaeltacht, Diarmuid has won many sean nós singing competitions at the Oireachtas na Gaeilge.

In 2023 he was commissioned by The John Dwyer Featival and the National Arts Council of Ireland to compose a suite a music in memory of the great Dwyer family from Beara.

In 2016, Diarmuid won the Senior All Ireland melodeon title at the Fleadh in Ennis at 19 years of age. In 2018, Diarmuid graduated from Mary Immaculate College with a Bachelor’s degree in Primary Education.

As a soloist, Diarmuid has been invited to teach at multiple festivals in Ireland, Europe and the US. In 2023 he was invited by the legendary Frankie Gavin to join his group Dé Dannan. They have played at multiple festivals in Ireland, UK and Europe. In May they performed on The Late Late Show.

One of the rare young pianists whose sound reflects the 1920s piano styles, Brian McGrath was born in Brookeborough, County Fermanagh, 1965. Although his parents did not play music, they owned a pub that featured local and visiting players on a regular basis. This is where he first heard the music. When he was a child, his parents acquired old 78 rpms at estate auctions around the county; these discs introduced a young boy to the piano sound of the 1920s. He began to play piano at age five. He learned his first tune on the piano, “Lovely Leitrim”, from the mouth music of his mother. He went on to learn accompaniment and often accompanied his friend, fiddler Seamus Quinn. Seamus had a vast knowledge of the old music and shared it with him.

Around this time he also heard the music of Frankie´ Gavin’s band De Dannan. He eventually met Frankie in Joe Dimond’s house in Maghera, County Derry. Joe had a sizable 78 collection. Here, after one of Frankie´s gigs, they played together for the first time. They both played the piano, four hands on the keyboard — Frankie accompanied Brian! By the age of seventeen Brian was also playing banjo. It was around this time that he first heard talk of Joe Derrane; eventually he heard his 78s. As superb and gifted on the banjo as he is on the piano, Brian carries around a stunning knowledge of the old music.