In This Issue:

Save the Date for MIM 2014

Volunteers needed for Eigse

MN tax deductions for music lessons

Éigse CIM, A Gaela Event, Feb 22

REGISTER NOW FOR SPRING TERM

Workshops & lessons from Full Set musicians

MIM Visiting Artist 'Featurette'

Welcome newest CIM board member, David McKenna

Upcoming
Events

Wednesday, February 12

Catch Daithi Sproule and Lisa Richardson talking about Eigse CIM, A Gaela Event on KBEM, FM 88.5 from 7:30-8pm with Kevin O'Connor.

Friday, February 14

Join Ann and Charlie Heymann for a free seminar-performance entitled: The Birds, The Bees, and The Gaelic Harp. 7:30pm at The Celtic Junction.

Saturday, February 15

Rince na Chroi returns at 7pm to the O'Shaughnessy Auditorium for From the Stage to Your Heart, featuring rousing tunes from Two Tap Trio!

Sunday, February 16

All CIM students are encouraged to attend our student session from 2:30-4pm in the multi-purpose room at The Celtic Junction.

Head over to Kieran's Irish Pub for an evening of music from Derek Warfield and the Young Wolfe Tones, at 6pm. Cover is $10 and the full menu will be available. Seating is first come, first served.

Saturday, February 22

Eigse CIM, A Gaela Event - join us for our biggest fundraising event of the year! Details, at right.

Thursday, February 27

Workshops from musicians of Full Set, 7-8:30pm at The Celtic Junction. More details at right.

Friday, February 28

Private lessons available with musicians from Full Set at 10am, 11am, or noon. More details at right

Full Set performs in concert at The Cedar Cultural Center, with opening act The HiBs! Music starts at 8pm. Tickets available here.

****************************************************

This is not meant to be an exhaustive list of all of the possible events within the Irish community in the Twin Cities. For more listings, please visit the IMDA's Event Calendar, which is a great schedule of local events.

SAVE THE DATE

for

the 7th annual

June 13-15, 2014

*************************

Oisin Mac Diarmada

fiddle

Catherine McEvoy

flute

John McEvoy

fiddle

John Blake

guitar, piano, flute

Rita Gallagher

Song

More information is on our website.

We have also created a

MIM 2014 event on our Facebook page

where you can RSVP and invite your friends.

WE NEED YOUR HELP

as a volunteer for

Eigse CIM, A Gaela Event

One of the best things about the Center for Irish Music is our community of involved students, parents, staff, instructors, and community members. We could not present the events that we do each year here at CIM without you! Right now we are in need of volunteers for our biggest fundraising event of the year. If you are interested in volunteering at Eigse on February 22nd, please let us know by contacting our volunteer coordinator, Becky Bollinger at volunteer@centerforirishmusic.org.

Volunteers at Eigse CIM, a Gaela

Event, February 2011.

TAX DEDUCTION FOR MUSIC LESSONS & INSTRUMENT RENTAL AT CIM!

The state of Minnesota allows parents to claim education-related expenses to qualify for either a credit or income deduction on their state tax forms.

Click here for an article in the Star Tribune all about MN tax deductions.

Click here for the MN Revenue Fact Sheet

The Center For Irish Music is on Facebook!

FB page screen grab

As of Feb. 4, we have 2,254 Fans! WOW! Become a fan of the Center for Irish Music on Facebook to share ideas, keep up-to-date on current CIM events, and share your love of Irish music with the larger Irish community! Please tell your friends.

CIM has a LinkedIn group and we encourage CIM members to contact each other via this social networking site.

CIM's LinkedIn Profile

As always, we welcome your feedback and comments. Please feel free to contact us at any time at:

The Center for Irish Music

@The Celtic Junction

836 Prior Avenue North

St. Paul, MN 55104

651-815-0083

admin@centerforirishmusic.org

Dear CIM supporters,

Although it is hard to associate the word "spring" with anything going on these days, our Spring Term began yesterday. There is still room in most of our classes, but do contact us today if you are planning on registering and haven't done so yet. We still need more students in the following classes to run them:

Tin Whistle Troupe (beg whistle 6-9yrs) - Wed 6pm
Irish Pub Songs - Tuesdays 8pm

If you are not currently a student or if you are based a little further away from the Twin Cities, I hope you will join us for one of the these wonderful upcoming events!

Eigse CIM, A Gaela Event - Saturday, February 22

Tickets are going very fast. Reserve now!

Full Set Workshops & Private Lessons

Thursday and Friday, February 27 & 28

Minnesota Irish Music Weekend - June 13-15

The main visiting artists have been booked. Check out our *new* MIM artist 'featurette' with Oisin Mac Diarmada, below.

CIM Summer Camps

Registration opens on Friday!

-Norah Rendell

Executive Director

Saturday, February 22nd

5:00-10:30pm

at The Celtic Junction

The CIM and Jim Rogers, director of the Center for Irish Studies at the University of Saint Thomas, invite you to dress up in your finest, bring your friends, and join us at The Celtic Junction for

�igse CIM, A Gaela Event.

Visit our Eigse page for tickets

and complete information.

Ticket prices:

$60.00 - guests arriving at 5:30 p.m. for dinner, silent auction reception, and concert

$25.00 - guests arriving at 6:30 p.m. for silent auction reception and concert

WE ARE CURRENTLY REQUESTING DONATIONS FOR OUR SILENT AUCTION. INFORMATION AND DONATION FORMS CAN BE FOUND HERE. If you have questions, please contact Emily.

IT'S NOT TOO LATE TO REGISTER

FOR SPRING TERM!

Spring term began yesterday. The following classes need more students to run:

Tin Whistle Troupe 1, a beginning whistle class for 6-9 year-olds on Wednesdays at 6pm.
Song Squad, a youth harmony song class on Tuesdays at 5:45pm.
Irish Pub Songs, an adult class on Tuesdays at 8pm

See the complete listings of group classes and register!

To set up private lessons this term, contact Erika

Opportunity to take workshops and/or private lessons from members of visiting

Irish traditional band,

Full Set

WORKSHOPS - Thursday, February 27, 7:00-8:30pm

All workshops are an hour and a half and are $30.00. To register, click here.

Eamonn Moloney - Bodhran

Janine Redmond - Accordion

Michael Harrison - Fiddle

Teresa Horgan - Song

Martino Vacca - Uillean pipes

PRIVATE LESSONS - Friday, February 28, 10am-1pm

Private lessons are available on the following instruments with the following musicians from Full Set on the morning of Friday, February 28th. Each lesson will be 60 minutes long and cost $60. Lesson times are first-come, first-served and are available at 10am, 11am and noon. Please reserve your spot with Erika Nelson. You can pay by credit card, check (checks made out to the Center for Irish Music) or cash.

Michael Harrison
- Fiddle

Janine Redmond - Button Accordion (B/C) /Flute/Tin whistle

Eamonn Moloney - Bodhran/Flute/Whistle/Step dancing
Teresa Horgan - Singing/Flute/Whistle
Martino Vacca - Uilleann Pipes/Flute/Whistle
Andy Meaney - Guitar

MIM Visiting Artist 'Featurette' ~Ois�n Mac Diarmada~

Welcome to the Minnesota Irish Music Weekend visiting artist featurette! Beginning with this issue, we'll feature one of the MIM visiting artists in each CIM newsletter from now until June. We hope you'll enjoy getting to know a little about the backgrounds and influences of each of our special guests.

Introducing: Oisin Mac Diarmada (fiddle)

As a musician, who are some of your top influences? "My main influences are twofold. Firstly, the fiddlers of West Clare who I met and learned from at the Willie Clancy Summer School as a child. The combination of hearing their incredibly expressive music along with the opportunity of getting to know them a bit as kind and generous people, was a powerful influence. In later years, the remastered '78 recordings of the Sligo fiddle masters Coleman, Morrison and Killoran, brought back to life by Harry Bradshaw along with field recordings of the McDonagh Brothers recorded primarily by Paddy Ryan, provided a fascinating glimpse into a world rich with interpretation and stylistic variety."

Who would you recommend students of Irish traditional music be listening to? "Well they have plenty of choice, that's for sure! I'd recommend sticking to solo recordings, if one is listening in particular with a view to learning specific fiddling skills. It's good to start with a musician you really enjoy listening to, as this will help keep you motivated. If you find some of the older recordings less than approachable in terms of sound quality at the outset, it's ok to leave this for another day. What you need is a good, clear and approachable entry-point to the music, and then you can broaden out the spectrum as your listening skills improve to the point where you can discern the fascinating stylistic variety found in players who bring knowledge and imagination to this music."

What are the top three recordings you'd want to have with you if you were stranded on a deserted island?

~Michael Coleman (1891 - 1945), Gael Linn / Viva Voce

~Tommie Potts - Traditional Fiddle Music from Dublin, RT� ~The McDonagh Brothers of Ballinafad, Comhaltas Ceolt�ir�
�ireann

Please welcome newest CIM

board member, David McKenna

David McKenna, a pathologist at the University of Minnesota, comes to our board of directors with insights from his many years of involvement at CIM! Dave has been a flute and whistle student at CIM since nearly the beginning and has been a member of An Luan (one of our adult ensembles) for the past several years. He is also the proud father of two young CIM students, an enthusiastic volunteer, and an ardent advocate for CIM. In addition to lending his leadership skills to the board, David will be helping to coordinate outreach performances for our many ensembles. Welcome, David!

David McKenna (on flute), with his fellow An Luan members