Cork Opera House
October 6th 8pm
Cork Opera House 8pm Frankie Gavin & De Dannan with special guests Molly O’ Mahony & Dave Murphy €29
The Cork Folk Festival presents a 45th anniversary concert
with
Frankie Gavin & De Dannan
And
Molly O’ Mahony and Dave Murphy
The Cork Folk Festival is preparing for a spectacular 45th edition from 2-6th October!
A highlight of this year’s festival will be a very special 45th Anniversary Concert at Cork Opera House, featuring virtuoso fiddler Frankie Gavin presenting the latest incarnation of De Dannan with Catherine Mc Hugh on piano, Ian Kinsella on guitar, Diarmuid Ó Meachair on melodeon and Kaitlin Cullen-Verhauz on cello.
One of Ireland’s most gifted songwriters, Cork’s Jack O’Rourke, joins De Dannan for a night of music not to be missed.
Frankie Gavin & De Dannan
Frankie Gavin, from Galway, Ireland, is one of the most visionary and inspiring virtuoso Irish fiddlers in the world; the founder, heart and core of the legendary band De Dannan.
Coming from a musical family, Frankie Gavin has played fiddle and flute since his teenage years. At the age of seventeen, he won All-Ireland competitions for fiddle and flute.
Originally influenced by the great Irish and American-Irish fiddle players such as James Morrison, he later found himself playing with stars: The Rolling Stones, Stephane Grappelli, James Galway and Yehudi Menuhin, and for celebrity audiences including four American presidents: J. F. K on his 1962 visit to Ireland, followed later by Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama.
Perhaps most importantly, the name Frankie Gavin is synonymous with De Dannan, the globally celebrated band he founded with Alec Finn in the mid-1970s. Over the years, there have been a numerous star-studded line-ups, and 2023 saw the birth of the latest incarnation of the band. De Dannan now comprises Frankie Gavin on fiddle and flute, Catherine Mc Hugh on piano, Ian Kinsella on guitar, Diarmuid Ó Meachair on melodeon and Kaitlin Cullen-Verhauz on vocals and cello.
Since their formation, the new band have played at Wickham Festival (UK), Ballyshannon Folk and Traditional Music Festival, The All-Ireland Fleadh, Mujllingar, Tonder Festivak (Denmark), and Belfast Tradfest.
Molly O’ Mahony
Molly’s power lies in her ability to convey deep and nuanced feelings through her voice and words.
Her critically acclaimed debut album ‘The House Of David’ was released in November 2022. It held the ‘Album Of The Week’ spot on RTE Radio 1 and was nominated in the ‘Best Debut Album’ category at The Hotpress Awards, 2023.
She released four singles in the lead-up to the album release – Remember To Be Brave, Brother Blue, Her Song and Bittersweet– samplings which reflect the broad span of influences in her songwriting, her verbal virtuosity and her ability to convey pure feeling.
In December 2023, she released ‘Extension’, an addendum to the record, which featured the RTE Concert Orchestra.
Since the release of her debut album, Molly has opened stages for Aoife O’Donovan, Mick Flannery, Damien Dempsey, The Hot House Flowers and Soda Blonde, to name but a few.
Molly’s voice echoes ethereally like a cherubic Patti Smith, like a celestial PJ Harvey soaring” Barry Egan, Sunday Independent
David Murphy is a multi-instrumentalist based in Cork, Ireland known best for his work with the pedal steel guitar.
Murphy’s unique application of the evocative and ever-mysterious pedal steel guitar has resulted in his invitation to participate in many collaborations and projects over his years as a session musician and band-member.
Taking the instrument outside the confines of its traditional roots, Murphy has accumulated a growing list of recording and live credits. He can regularly be seen and heard on stage and in the studio with diverse Irish artists such as The Lost Brothers, John Blek & The Rats, Arborist, Cian Nugent, Ordnance Survey, Greenshine and The Remedy Club amongst others as well as touring or performing alongside acclaimed international artists such as Willy Vlautin, The Delines, Richmond Fontaine, M. Ward and Jolie Holland.
