Carmel Gunning is a well known whistle and flute performer/teacher from Sligo. She’ll be visiting the US in late March. My whistle teacher (Sue Gedutis Lindsay) is a friend of Carmen’s and is organizing a whistle workshop and concert on Sunday, March 18, 2007 in Plymouth MA (1 hour south of Boston).
The workshop will be 2-4 pm. Carmen can teach all levels at once so everyone is welcome. We’re mostly beginners with a few “advanced” beginners. Depending on who attends the workshop, there may be two groups, beginner and intermediate or possibly advanced.
The concert will be 7-9pm.
Both events will be in downtown Plymouth at the 18th century Whitfield House, just steps from Plymouth Harbor. There are a few bed and breakfast rooms in the facility; reserve early.
There are many restaurants in easy walking distance.
The workshop will be $30 and the concert will be $12. It will be $40 for both. If you want to come send me a PM for details about reservations of the workshop, the concert or both.
About Carmel Gunning
Irish whistle, flute player, and vocalist Carmel Gunning was born into a musical family from Geevagh in south Sligo, Ireland. Recently celebrating 25 years of teaching music and song, she is Director of Queen Maeve International Summer School of Irish Music, Song and Dance, and is the whistle and flute instructor for MA and BA students in Limerick University. Liam Kelly of Dervish fame is a past pupil. She regularly performs in pubs and clubs in Sligo, Leitrim, and Roscommon. She also appears on television and radio and is a popular adjudicator in Irish music competitions. Gunning conducts master class and workshops all over Ireland and abroad. She has written a book of Irish music tunes called The Mountain Top as well as a songbook and CD titled The Maid of Sweet Gurteen, due out later this year. She has released several recordings, including the recent The Sligo Maid, as well as The Lakes of Sligo, Around St. James¹ Well, and Carmel Gunning Sings Country. For more information on Carmel Gunning and the Queen Maeve International Summer School, visit her Web site. http://www.cygo.ie/tradmusic
She’s very good. I took her class last year at the St. Louis Tionól. Take the class if you get the chance.
NOTE:
Do not mess about in her class, she’s quite serious about her classes.
Listen closely, she tends to speak quietly.
She is very strong on the view that an inexpensive whistle is all you need for a tool, and that how you play it is what makes all the difference. Certainly, she is proof of that theory.
Apparently she’s not much of one to respond to email, so I’ll have to call her about WFO4. I love her whistle playing, and would like to hear what she brings to the flute.
I attended her first workshop and concert yesterday. Both were outstanding.
She’ll be doing another workshop next weekend at the Irish Cultural Center in Canton MA. In the workshop she taught about 20 people “the Three Flowers”, “Lament for Fred Finn” and “the Lake of Sligo”.
She has four or five evening concerts planned. She plays whistles in 3 keys including a Generation D and a Burke b flat. She did several tunes on the flute, sang a half dozen songs and had lots of great stories.
I think she has 2 programs on the Cape, the Skelleg in Waltham, Hibernian Hall in Worcester, Irish Cultural Center next week end and maybe one show in Manchester NH.
She also passed along that she’s working on a couple of cds and at least one tune book. The tune book will focus on South Sligo and be designed for the whistle. It will have regular musical notation. It will also have letter notation that she’s developed. It shows the notes of course but also rhythm and ornamentation.
This is different from The Mountain Top: More tunes popular in south Sligo, which she seems to have written? (I mean, I guess the description doesn’t really match, but it seems like a lot of South Sligo tunebooks to have out there…)
Just received a copy of The Mountain Top More Tunes Popular in South Sligo This is the book that Carmel Gunning spoke about in here workshops here in the Boston Area. I bought it through the Michael Coleman Heritage Center Ltd. at www.colemanirishmusic.com
Cheers
