Sean Cleland: Director, Fiddle, Grúpaí Cheoil, Ensembles
Sean Cleland is an award winning Irish fiddler, Irish music teacher and the director of the Irish Music School of Chicago, which he founded in 2004.
Sean grew up on the North side of Chicago in an Irish-American household in which the only Irish music heard was of the Irish-American variety.
He started classical violin lessons at age 7, and at age 9 his parents took him to one of the first North American concerts of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann. There were three great, fiery fiddle players playing that night: Paddy Glackin, Paddy Ryan and Antoin MacGabhann. "I was absolutely bowled over by their music that night," says Cleland, "And I decided that that was how I was going to play the fiddle!"
"Chicago was a very exciting place to hear and learn Irish music in the 1970s," says Cleland. "Liz Carroll, Michael Flatley and Jimmy Keane were bursting out onto the world stage. There were quite a few older Irish musicians still going strong and I had many great times listening to their music and stories. I am privileged to have gotten to know such players as Kevin Henry, Jimmy Coyle, Seamus and Mary Cooley, Joe Shannon and Johnny McGreevey, Martin Byrne, Albert Neary, Joe O'Shea, Phil Durkin and Tom Masterson, Frank Thornton, Cuz Teahan and Una McGlew, Tommy Maguire and Jimmy and Eleanor Neary.
On the North side of the City there was a vibrant Irish music scene that was initially centered around a Thursday evening get together at the Mayfair (Chicago Park District) Field House, and a monthly Ceili held at the Swiss Club on Laramie Avenue. Most of the Irish musicians in Chicago would turn up at these Ceilis, whose core group would include Noel Rice, Pat McPartland, Jack Murray, Tommy Maguire and Tom O'Malley.
This led to the creation of the Francis O'Neill club and then music lessons for all of us from Liz Carroll.
We began to go and compete and win in US Fleadh Cheoils, which led to many trips to Ireland to compete in the Fleadh Cheoil na Éireann and attend the weeklong Scoil Eigse. There were many musicians that I met and played with in Ireland that were crucial to my musical development, too many to list here.
Also during the late 1970s, early 1980's, great Irish touring musicians began to perform in Chicago. These included: Kevin Burke and Michael O'Domhnaill, De Danann, the Green Fields of America, Joe Burke and Andy McGann, Joe and Antoinette McKenna, Paddy Keenan and Liam O'Flynn. We were often involved in helping put on these concerts and we got to hear and hang out with these illustrious players before and after their shows."
In the early 1980's Sean began to teach fiddle and group ensemble classes and in 1982 co-founded the band Baal Tinne with Noel Rice.
He left Baal Tinne in 1987 to found the Irish-influenced folk-rock band, The Drovers. The Drovers played to packed houses all across the US, recorded 4 albums and appeared in two major Hollywood films: Backdraft and Blink, contributing songs and tunes to the soundtrack.
In 2000, Sean co-founded the traditional Irish band bohola with accordion virtuoso Jimmy Keane. During his tenure in the band (2000-2006), bohola recorded four critically acclaimed albums and toured extensively throughout the US, Canada and Australia.
He left bohola in 2006 to focus more on his growing Irish Music School of Chicago (www.irishmusicschool.com).
Sean has also performed and toured with the Irish band Aengus, The Green Fields of America, was the original fiddle player and Musical Director for Chicago's Trinity Irish Dancers and for the Steppenwolf Theater, and played with Irish singer Robbie O'Connell. He has been a noted and in-demand Feis musician since the mid-1980's.
He taught fiddle and Irish mixed-instrumental ensembles at the Old Town School of Folk Music from 1997 to 2004. He regularly teaches at the Catskills Irish Arts Week in NY, the Goderich, Ontario Celtic Roots Festival, the California Traditional Arts Festival, and the Milwaukee Irish Fest summer school.
Since 2005 Sean has been the Chairman of The Irish Musicians' Association of Chicago (www.irishmusiciansassociation.org), an organization founded in 1951 and dedicated to the playing, preserving and teaching of Irish music.