Just wondered where I can listen to her play. She’s teaching at the Irish Music Camp at Friday Harbor, WA in March. I’m excited about going, have heard she’s a good instructor. Has anyone else been to her workshop? Thanks, John.
She’s got two terrific albums, available from www.elderly.com
She’s also on “The Flute Players of Roscommon.”
The Flute Players of Roscommon CD is the only commercial recording I know of that comes close to accurately capturing the tone she gets from her flute; it sounds a bit thin on the other two.
Here’s a bit of a recording I made of her at a flute workshop she gave about 9 years ago in New York; I dont’ think she’d mind my posting this here. She’s an excellent teacher and one of the most brilliant Irish flute players in the world today. The four hours I spent in that workshop totally changed the way I play the flute, and I’m still learning things from that tape.
http://www.firescribble.net/hollybush.mp3
(1.75 megabyte MP3 file)
Keep the sound files coming Brad!! Any chance you can put the ones you’ve posted here on the boards on a page on your website? That would be really neat. I covet these kind of recordings.
Does Catherine McEvoy teach anywhere else in the US besides the Washington event? I’d love to take a class with her, but that one’s in March!
Thanks for the recording! I know we all enjoy it.
Jeanie
Great clip! I learned that tune off the Drones & Chanters UP collection but I think I prefer this version.
Thanks for the clip, Brad. It’s a good example but still even tame compared to her playing at the Friday Harbor school last March. “Electricity” is the only word I can think of that illustrates her power.
I know she’s taught at other schools but I don’t know how often.
Catherine’s style has evolved in subtle ways over the past 10 years, and there are some tunes she played at Friday Harbor last March that just slay me (even more than her settings and her playing usually do, which is saying something). Her version of The Humours of Lissadell blew me away; I’ve been playing that tune for years and thought I’d explored it pretty well but she came up with the most beautiful and exciting variations I’ve ever heard – nothing flashy, just incredibly tasteful and musical. She’s a genius.
As for posting more clips on my site…I’m a bit reluctant to post clips of living players without getting their permission first, and besides I have to keep my site hosting service’s bandwith limits in mind. I’ve heard musicians express anger or chagrin when music they played for a small audience in a session or a private workshop got posted publicly on the Web, although others don’t seem to mind.
Catherine seems to have found a home at the Friday Harbor camp, as she’s been there for three or four years straight now. But she has been in the States a couple of other times as well over the past decade, such as the New York workshop Brad mentioned and also a couple of times at the late lamented Gaelic Roots week in Boston. I think finding her in the US is mainly a matter of getting an invitation out to her, so if you’ve got a favorite summer school or camp I suggest urging its organizers to bring her over for it. I know I’ve been after both Mick Moloney to bring her to Augusta and Paul Keating to bring her to East Durham, to no avail as of yet unfortunately.
I agree with Brad about the difference between hearing her live and on recordings. The recordings, although brilliant, only skim the surface of her playing. IMHO, she’s the best. Matt who?
Since it’s been a few years since I last saw her, I’ve decided to make the journey cross-country to Friday Harbor this year myself. Living in the nation’s capital as I do, I’ve told her a few times that she should come to Washington, and I guess she took my suggestion. She just picked the wrong Washington…
This is understandable…you sure do have a wealth of clips though.
Believe me, my collection is miniscule compared with those of other musicians I know! It’s just easier for me to post clips because I’ve been slowly transferring the best of my old cassettes to digital format, so everything’s already in MP3, and I happen to have a website where I can post them to.
Thanks for the sound clip Brad, I really like how she plays. J.
A clip from the Wooden Flute Obsession Volume 1:
http://www.worldtrad.org/WFO_CD2.htm
Scroll down to Catherine- MP3.
Custy’s in session video with John and Catherine McEvoy:
http://www.custysmusic.com/mall/CustysTraditionalMusicShop/catherine_and_john_mcevoy.htm
i can never get those custy’s things to play, anybody else have this problem?
I had that problem too but it went away after I upgraded my Windows Media Player to the latest version.
looks like i’ve got the latest upgrade (9) they offer for Mac OSX so i guess i’m SOL… thanks anyway.
edit: i figured out a bypass… go to “view source”, get the filename (mpg rather than htm) and use that…
so the McEvoy video can be reached directly at
http://www.custysvideo.com/video/catherine_and_john_mcevoy_hi_res.mpg
I’m going to Friday Harbor this year, too. Very excited about it 
I’m not sure what to do, though… My list of things I already know I need to work on is enough to keep me occupied for a few years. Either she’ll tell me the same things, or the list will get longer
What has her class been like in the past?
I’ve only attended one class session of hers, William, but these intensive workshops are great experiences. You learn by doing.
It’s like an immersion school. You step out of your everyday life of being somebody who’s “learning” the instrument and spend 5 days doing almost nothing but playing it. You’ll either find that some of the obstacles in your playing will just get washed away or will stick out so that you’ll be vigilant in doing what it takes to eliminate them.
Cheers,
Aaron
Really spectacular playing! 
For a newb like me who “looses” the low D after about 20 minutes of practice, it’s so cool to hear someone who can really hit it hard wherever and whenever they want. 
Something to aspire to… 
Sounds good. I’ve been to this kind of thing before, I was just wondering about McEvoy’s teaching style. I’ve heard nothing but good about it.