Dinny Leonard strikes up a tune on his fiddle.
A NEW CD heavily influenced by the work of well-known music teacher Dinny Leonard is to be launched in The Knocks Community Hall on May 9.
Dinny, who has taught music in Fermanagh for over 30 years is the organiser behind ‘Between the hills’. He explained just a bit more about the project.
“The people involved are a very small section of the people I have kept in contact with and taught over the years, the many friends that I have made through my involvement in music.
“People were asking me Dinny are you not going to compose a tune that you would have your name attached to? I was never really comfortable playing as a solo performer and I never had the inspiration for a tune, not yet anyway so we thought we would do this and just make it a sample from some of the people that I taught.”
On the CD there are 12 tracks in total; four songs and eight tracks of music.
“They are tunes that have been handed down for years,” explained Dinny, “we have a good few selections composed by Paddy O’Brien, the famous composer and accordion player from Tipperary.”
Dinny is accompanied on the fiddle by granddaughter Amy Flynn, while his daughter Concepta plays a number of keyboard pieces she performed 30 years ago to win two All-Ireland titles. Also involved is Coa accordion player John McCann, himself a former Ulster champion and winner at the Cavan Fleadh.
Singers on the CD include Phillip Gunn from Derrylin, who sings two slow airs and ballad singers Hugh Pat Robinson from Cooneen, a close relative of the late Sean McAloon and Damien McKenna, another All-Ireland champion. The CD has been recorded by Eugene Cunningham of Tarmon Brae Studios, Enniskillen.
Dinny added:
“It was very enjoyable, but it was stressful trying to find what we wanted to do. Trying to find what was going to work, how we were going to get a nice CD and what tunes, musicians we were going to use.
“It ended up there were five musicians and getting them in the one spot was difficult. It was a bit of craic and we managed it in the end. I’m very happy with it.”
The launch night will be held on May 9 in the Knocks Community Centre at 8pm, where they will be a concert, with tracks from the CD being played.
There will also be a music session starting at 10.30pm in the adjoining Heritage Centre.
