Randal Bays - fiddle

Co-founder and Artistic Director of the Friday Harbor Irish Music Camp, Randal is an American fiddler who's been playing and teaching Irish fiddle for over 30 years and has earned the respect of Irish music fans around the world.

Randal's website

Antóin MacGabhann - fiddle

Cavan native Antóin MacGabhann is one of Ireland's most revered fiddlers and a highly regarded teacher, who has influenced a generation of musicians in Ireland. This is a rare opportunity to study with Antóin outside of Ireland.

Read more about Antóin

Sean Moloney - flute

Sean Moloney is from a long line of traditional Irish flute players going back five generations. He is an outstanding musician and one of the few remaining who play the Ballinakill East Galway regional style of flute playing. His father was famed fluter Eddie Moloney and his grandfather Stephen was one of the founder members of the Ballinakill Traditional players.

Sean plays both the Boehme and simple system concert flutes, so this is a great opportunity for both simple and Boehme system players to learn Irish music from a master musician with a deep grounding in the Irish tradition.

Sean's website

Johnny Óg Connolly - accordion

From one of Conamara's great musical families, Johnny is making his first visit to Friday Harbor. He's a master of the traditional style of playing on the two-row accordion, and won the All-Ireland accordion prize at the age of 12. In recent years Johnny has performed and recorded with many great musicians including Charlie Lennon, Brian McGrath, etc. His playing is lively and expressive and represents the best of the Irish accordion tradition. In Irish, "Og" means "young", and in this case it distinguishes Johnny from his father, Johnny Connolly, a famous accordion player in his own right.

Florence Fahy - concertina

Florence is a native of north Co. Clare's Newquay, just up the road from Belharbour, home to famed concertina player Chris Droney and the center of an unusually rich tradition of concertina playing in Ireland. As musician and author (and former Friday Harbor instructor) Fintan Vallely points out, Florence is among those gifted young players who are helping to sustain the older dialects of Clare music. She's taught concertina extensively at home in Ireland and in the U.S.

Tony McManus - fingerstyle guitar and Irish accompaniment

Making his first visit to Friday Harbor this year, Tony is a masterful musician known around the world for his solo fingerstyle guitar work. He is also one of the finest guitar accompanists in the world and will be teaching both solo fingerstyle and accompaniment in his classes. A rare opportunity for guitarists interested in Irish music to learn both techniques from this great player.

Tony's website

Andrea Cooper - Introduction to the tinwhistle

A trained teacher, Andrea Cooper has taught everything from computers to clawhammer banjo. Andrea caught the Irish music bug when she was living in Toronto. Since then, her hobby has taken her to places as far as Eek, Alaska and as close as Lopez Island. While living in Vancouver she co-hosted the session at the Irish Heather, a piece of it captured on the CBC recording “In the Heather”. Andrea's always popular whistle class will be offered once a day as an introduction to the intricacies of Irish music.