Tony DeMarco
 
Samantha Morreale

Hot Irish Fiddle

Tony DeMarco

 

Deft Irish Dance

Trinity Irish Dance Group

Tony DeMarco is one of America’s finest folk fiddlers. A Brooklyn native of Irish and Italian decent, he is among the world's leading exponents of the sophisticated County Sligo style of Irish fiddling. Tony’s playing has all the characteristics of great Sligo fiddling- swinging rythmic drive, a wealth of bowed and finger ornamentation, and a high degree of improvised melodic variation. Sligo fiddling has been closely associated with the New York Irish musical trdition for many yesrs. Imigrant Sligo fiddlers in New York, notably the great Michael Coleman, James Morrison and Paddy Killoran, made hundreds of classic recordings in “the Big Apple” during the 78-rpm era. the influence of these discs back in Ireland made the sligo style, as played in New York City, the de facto national standard for decades thereafter. In the early 1970’s, following a musical apprenticeship in American folk fiddling, Tony immersed himself in Sligo fiddling. In addition to listening intensively to the old 78’s, he absorbed tunes and techniques from leading Sligo style fiddlers in both the U.S. and Ireland. Paddy Reynolds, a Conty Longford-born New York fiddler and a protoge of the late Sligo fiddle great James “Lad” Obeirne, was a major influence on Tony’s music, He also learned a great deal from playing with and listening to the late Martyn Wynn, John Vesey and Johnny McGreevy. Tony spent the summer of 1976 is Co, Sligo, playing with local musicians on thier home ground. Back in New York, he developed a musical partnership with Bronx fiddle standout Brian Comway, a callaboration that led to the 1981 recording- The Apple in Winter- a landmark album of fiddle duets. Tony has recorded and perfomed with The Flying Cloud , the Kips Bay Cieli Band, Celtic Thunder and Black 47. He’s played for the Smithsonian Institute’s Folklife Festival and co-autored a fiddle tutor “ A Trip To Sligo” . He has been a featured performer at leading Irish music festivals in the U.S. and Europe and can be seen at Paddy Reilly’s Pub in N.Y.C. weekly. Don Meade N.Y.C.   Samantha Morreale has been Irish Dancing for over 20 years, since the age of six.  Competitively, Samantha has won numerous championships, including two World Championship medals in 1994 and 1998, a truly significant accomplishment for a dancer fom outside Ireland.  Samantha has been touring internationally with the critically acclaimed Trinity Irish Dance Company for the past 14 years and is a founding company member.  She has appeared in world renowned performing arts venues including The Joyce Theater (New York), UCLA Royce Hall (Los Angeles), Chicago Theater (Chicago) Annenberg Center (Philadelphia), The Hummingbird Center (Toronto), NJPAC (New Jersey) and as far away as Switzerland, Austria, Taiwan and Japan.  Samantha appeared in the motion picture Mafia! with Lloyd Bridges (Touchstone Pictures), as well as other national television commercials.  In addition, Samantha performs with the Niall O'Leary Dance Troupe and  Darrah Carr Dance here in New York City. 

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