10th South Wales Tionol w/ Mick O'Brien, Gay McKeon Sept 6/7

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RLines
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10th South Wales Tionol w/ Mick O'Brien, Gay McKeon Sept 6/7

Post by RLines »

In celebration of our 10th tionol, the South Wales Uilleann Pipers are proud to welcome back to the Rhondda Valleys two long-time friends of the club, and past tionol guests, Mick O'Brien and Gay McKeon.

Piping at the Old Bridge
The 10th South Wales Tionol
September 6th/7th 2019
Pontypridd Museum, Pontypridd

With Special Guests
Mick O’Brien (uilleann pipes)
Gay McKeon (uilleann pipes)
Jason Rouse (tin whistle)
Fiddle (TBA)


Highlights include:

- Opening Concert Friday Night with Mick, Gay and other musicians
- Piping instruction all-day Saturday (beginner and improver levels)
- Fiddle instruction all-day Saturdaay (beginner and improver levels)
- Whistle instruction all-day Saturday (beginner and improver levels)
- Saturday afternoon Piper’s Chair piping recital
- Lunch provided Saturday alongside a demonstration of old 78rpm records of Patsy Touhey, Tom Ennis, Leo Rowsome, Liam Walsh and others played on antique wind-up gramophones
- Evening session on Friday in Pontypridd, and on Saturday in Ferndale (with special guests the Morlais Welsh Male Voice Choir)

The Tionol will be based in and around the Pontypridd Museum, a restored Baptist chapel dating from 1861. The chapel sits on the banks of River Taf at the foot of Pontypridd's 'Old Bridge' which, when first completed in 1756, was the longest single span bridge in Europe.

Mark the dates in your calendars. More information to follow soon. Also follow us on Facebook or Twitter for updates.

By email contact rhonddapiper(at)gmail(dot)com
www.uilleann.wales

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The Old Bridge, Pontypridd

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2018 tionol with Mikie Smyth and Fionnan Mac Gabhann

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2016 tionol with Mick O'Brien and Emmett Gill

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2017 tionol with Martin Nolan and Dicky Deegan

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Opening Concert 2018 with Mikie Smyth

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Piper's Chair 2018

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Session at Clwb Y Bont, Pontypridd 2018
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Re: 10th South Wales Tionol w/ Mick O'Brien, Gay McKeon Sept

Post by RenaissanceGuy »

It looks like a grand time!
One of these days I hope to make it to that side of the pond.
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Re: 10th South Wales Tionol w/ Mick O'Brien, Gay McKeon Sept

Post by RLines »

New poster for our tionol kick off concert on Friday 6 September in Pontypridd. Followed by a session. Classes are all day Saturday. More details to follow.

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Re: 10th South Wales Tionol w/ Mick O'Brien, Gay McKeon Sept

Post by RLines »

Just an update on the tionol. We are happy to confirm that Jacqui Martin from Dublin will teach our fiddle class.

Some of you may know Jacqui, who regularly performs with Gay McKeon. Jacqui teaches every year at The Joe Mooney Summer School in Drumshanbo, Co.Leitrim. She has performed and taught at other various workshops, festivals and summer schools in Ireland, the UK, Germany, Finland, Switzerland and the USA.

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Re: 10th South Wales Tionol w/ Mick O'Brien, Gay McKeon Sept

Post by RLines »

The tionol is getting closer, so we thought it a good time to suggest possible accomodations options for people attending. There's a Wales/Ireland rugby match in Cardiff on Sept 7th so we advise people to book now as people attending the match might end up looking for rooms around Pontypridd if Cardiff hotels are sold out.

1) Blueberry Inn, Pontypridd - The inn is a small boutique hotel in the centre of Pontypridd, walking distance from the museum where the tionol will be held.

http://www.blueberryinn-pontypridd.co.uk/ (Some people last year got a good deal on rooms here via booking.com)

2) Premier Inn, Llantrisant - Discount hotel approximately 6 miles (20 minute drive) from Pontypridd. Very reasonable room prices.

https://www.premierinn.com/gb/en/hotels ... isant.html

3) Central Guest House - New B&B in Treforest, 1 mile from Pontypridd.

http://www.centralguesthouse.co.uk/

4) Heritage Park Hotel, Pontypridd - The hotel is about a 5 minute drive/taxi ride from the museum where the tionol will be held.

http://www.heritageparkhotel.co.uk/

There are also a small number of guest houses, B&Bs and AirBnB options within a couple of miles of Pontypridd which can be accessed via various online booking websites.

Please PM me if you have any questions.
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Re: 10th South Wales Tionol w/ Mick O'Brien, Gay McKeon Sept

Post by RLines »

New poster for the Friday night opening concert at Pontypridd Museum

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Re: 10th South Wales Tionol w/ Mick O'Brien, Gay McKeon Sept

Post by RLines »

We have confirmed the venues for our sessions for the tionol.

On Friday evening, following the concert, we will be heading to The Llanover Arms, Llanover St, Pontypridd CF37 4PE. It's walking distance from the museum. We will be there from 10pm.

On Saturday night we will have a session at the Ferndale Hotel, Duffryn St, Ferndale CF43 4EL. We will start up sometime after 8pm.
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Re: 10th South Wales Tionol w/ Mick O'Brien, Gay McKeon Sept

Post by RLines »

Nice article about next month's tionol and the South Wales Pipers in the new online edition of FolkWales

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Re: 10th South Wales Tionol w/ Mick O'Brien, Gay McKeon Sept

Post by RLines »

Hello pipers! If anyone will be driving from London to the tionol and don't mind giving a fellow piper a lift please PM me.

Thanks
Rick
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Re: 10th South Wales Tionol w/ Mick O'Brien, Gay McKeon Sept

Post by RLines »

Final programme for the tionol!

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Re: 10th South Wales Tionol w/ Mick O'Brien, Gay McKeon Sept

Post by RLines »

Well the weekend is over and we want to say a huge thank you to everyone who joined us to make our 10th tionol an amazing success!

We kicked off Friday night with a SOLD OUT concert at Pontypridd Museum. First time this has ever happened, and we sadly had to send a few people away as we hit the legal capacity for the building. We were particularly happy to see Mei Williams, founder of the SWUP, in the audience. We were also honoured to receive a message of congratulations from Denise Hanrahan, the Consul General of Ireland in Cardiff, which we read out at the out to the audience.

Gay and Jacqui played as a duo in the first half of the concert, doing a wonderful set in C. Mick did a stunning solo piping performance for the second half, ending up with all three coming back on stage at the end of the night for a blast of tunes. At the closing we made special presentations to both Mick and NPU for their long time support of our event and for piping in South Wales. We all then retired to the Llanover Arms for a lively session into the night.

We started again Saturday morning for a day of instruction. Gay took the learners and Mick took the improvers. Jacqui taught fiddle while Jason Rouse taught whistle. At 1pm we took a break for The Pipers Chair, which we put on as a free public piping recital in the museum. As was the case the night before, we were pleasantly surprised to have a good audience for the event, and had twelve of the local and visiting pipers get up to play a set of tunes each. After the performance we went back to classes for the rest of the afternoon. The day and tionol closed out in fine style with a fantastic session at the Ferndale Hotel in Ferndale on Saturday night, where we were joined by members of the Côr Meibion Morlais, the local Welsh male voice choir, who regaled us with some powerful songs.

A huge thanks to everyone who helped make the weekend such a success. To Mick, Gay and Jacqui. To Cara Cullen who also performed at the Friday concert. To our amazing friends and ace volunteers, Halle, Gina and Mike, who helped make sure everything ran smoothly. Big thanks to Morwenna and all at the Pontypridd Museum. To Na Piobairi Uilleann. Pontypridd Town Council. The Consulate General of Ireland in Cardiff. Côr Meibion Morlais. Folk Wales Magazine. The Llantrisant Folk Club. The Llanover Arms and Ferndale Hotel. YourPontypridd. And a big thanks to our co-chair Jason Rouse who designed the posters, created the beautiful paintings for Mick and Gay, and also taught the whistle class!

And of course a huge thanks to all the musicians and fans who joined us for the weekend.

See you all next year!

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SOLD OUT opening concert!

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Gay and Jacqui

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Mick

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Paintings by Jason Rouse presented to Mick and Gay in thanks for their long term support of our club

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Friday session at the Llanover Arms, Pontypridd

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Classes Saturday

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The Piper's Chair

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Group photo

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Members of Côr Meibion Morlais singing for us at the closing session at The Ferndale Hotel, Ferndale.
Last edited by RLines on Mon Sep 09, 2019 10:20 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: 10th South Wales Tionol w/ Mick O'Brien, Gay McKeon Sept

Post by m muir »

Thanks again for putting it all together Rick.

Even though I was only there for the piping workshops on the Saturday I thoroughly enjoyed the day.

I've already put it in my diary for next year.
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