Aidan O’Rourke performing alongside Skye experimental piper Brìghde Chaimbeul, Dublin fiddle master Aoife Ní Bhriain, and Kerry concertina virtuoso Cormac Begley. Together, four of traditional music’s most adventurous voices explore memory and music carried on the tides.

Aidan O'Rourke

Aidan O'Rourke grew up in an Irish family in Argyll and learned fiddle in the West Highland style. His roots are in Scottish and Irish music but he roams the edges of those traditions.

His trio Lau came together in 2006 and has ventured a new sound in progressive folk music. The trio has released six studio albums, multiple live albums and collaborative EPs. Lau won Best Group at the BBC 2 Folk Awards an unprecedented four times.

Elsewhere, Aidan has been part of multiple inventive traditional music bands for nearly four decades. He joined The Caledonia Ramblers aged 14 in 1989; formed the duo Tabache with Claire Mann in 1994; became a member of Blazin’ Fiddles in 1998; founded the quartet Kan with whistle player Brian Finnegan in 2010; formed a duo with jazz pianist Kit Downes in 2016; joined Donal Lunny’s Atlantic Arc in 2017.

Aidan was named Musician of the Year at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in 2014. His multiple solo albums include Sirius (2006), An Tobar (2008), Hotline (2013), 365: Vol 1 (2018), Vol 2 (2019) and Iorram (2021).

As a composer Aidan has written ensemble/orchestral works including for Scottish Ensemble, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Edinburgh International Festival, Sage Gateshead, Celtic Connections, the Tolbooth (Stirling), An Tobar (Mull), Cottier’s Chamber Project (Glasgow) and Capella Nova. He is three-time awardee of the PRSF New Music Biennial commission at London’s Southbank Centre.

Brìghde Chaimbeul

Brìghde Chaimbeul (Breech-uh Campbell) is a leading purveyor of celtic experimentalism and a master of the Scottish smallpipes; a bellows-blown, mellower cousin to the famous Highland bagpipes. A native Gaelic speaker, Brìghde roots her music in her language and culture. She rose to prominence as a prodigy of traditional music, but has since begun a journey to take the smallpipes into unchartered territory. She has devised a unique way or arranging for pipe music that emphasises the rich textural drones of the instrument; the constancy of sound that creates a trance-like atmosphere, played with enticing virtuosic liquidity. She draws inspiration from the world of interconnected piping traditions, but her most recent album brings in influence from ambient, avant garde and electronic music.

Her mesmerising musicianship has won her many awards and media recognition, including BBC Young Folk Award, BBC Horizon Award, SAY Award nomination and a wide array of collaborators including Caroline Polachek, Colin Stetson, Gruff Rhys, and Radie Peat.

Aoife Ní Bhriain

Born in Dublin to a family of musicians, Aoife Ní Bhriain has established herself as a richly versatile musician, expert in both classical and folk music. Thanks to her musical heritage combined with her classical studies she has collaborated and performed with musicians such as pianist Eliso Virsaladze, fiddle player Martin Hayes, jazz guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel and Oscar winning actor Tim Robbins. She is a member of the Goodman Trio with whom she has explored the manuscripts of the music collected around Ireland in the 1800’s by Canon James Goodman.

Winner of the Bonn Óir Sean Uí Riada in 2010, Aoife has also won seven All Ireland titles as well as prizes in international violin and chamber music competitions. More recently Aoife qualified for the semi finals of the 2022 International Bach Competition in Leipzig and was awarded the Next Generation Award from the Arts Council of Ireland.

Cormac Begley

Cormac Begley hails from West Kerry, where his families’ roots are firmly cemented in traditional music. He plays thirteen concertinas that range from bass to piccolo register. Cormac’s daring and soul stirring approach to the playing of the concertina has opened up the instrument to a broader audience; garnering attention from renowned choreographer and director Michael Keegan Dolan.

Cormac’s career has gone from strength to strength over the last few years; selling out Vicar Street, headlining the National Concert Hall, headlining the closing performance of the Other Voices, winning Best Folk Instrumentalist 2022 at the RTÉ Folk Awards and Irish Times Album of the Year 2022, with his second solo album ‘B’. The album ‘B’ celebrates the bass concertina, a very rare instrument and on this album, Cormac uses two Dipper-made Bass concertinas to record all 12 tracks. His bold choice to concentrate solely on the bass and baritone register, the first album of it’s kind in any musical genre, has not gone unnoticed for all the right reasons and it has been described as ‘Album of the decade’ Donal Dineen, ‘The musical gift that keeps on giving’ The Irish Times, seven five star reviews and ‘Groundbreaking’ RTÉ Arena. The album and tracks from the album were nominated over three categories at the RTE Folk Awards 2022 for ‘Best Folk Album’, ‘Best Folk Track’ and ‘Best Original Folk Track’. His original composition ‘To War’ went viral with over 40 million views across multiple social media channels.

Cormac’s collaborates with several artists and appears on the latest albums of Lankum, Ye Vagabonds, Stephen James Smith and Lisa O’Neill and has toured extensively with artists Lisa O Neil, Liam O Connor, Liam O Maonlaí, Rushad Eggleston, Ye Vagabonds and Martin Hayes.

His long-standing musical relationship with Lisa O’Neill saw them collaborate on a cover to Bob Dylan's “All The Tired Horses” which was the closing track on the final scene of the final TV Episode of the BBC / Netflix series ‘Peaky Blinders’