Tradition Now: Cormac Begley & Friends

Our festival of new traditional and folk music closes with one of Ireland’s most exciting virtuoso talents...  

Cormac Begley hails from West Kerry, where his families’ roots are firmly cemented in traditional music. He plays thirteen concertinas that range from bass to piccolo register. Cormac’s daring and soul stirring approach to the playing of the concertina has opened up the instrument to a broader audience. For Tradition Now, he gathers some of his most cherished collaborators for an evening of collaboration.   

Cormac’s career has gone from strength to strength over the past year; selling out Vicar Street, previously headlining the National Concert Hall, headlining the closing performance of the Other Voices, winning Best Folk Instrumentalist 2022 at the RTÉ Folk Awards and Irish Times Album of the Year 2022, with his second solo album B. The album B celebrates the bass concertina, a very rare instrument and on this album Cormac uses two Dipper-made Bass concertinas to record all 12 tracks. 

Presented by NCH in partnership with The Arts Council