Interviews

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May 9th, 2007 by Shardul

Featuring inspirational and informative interviews with wooden flute players and Irish traditional musicians who live in New Zealand.

Pat Higgins Interview

Pat Higgins is an Irish traditional musician who plays wooden flute, tin whistle and guitar. Originally from Co. Galway in Ireland, Pat now resides in Wellington, New Zealand, where he works as a computer engineer in the IT industry. Very active in the local Irish traditional music scene, Pat is a regular at the Kitty O’Shea’s sessions on Monday evenings and is the chairman of Ceol Aneas – New Zealand’s Celtic music school. In this interview, Pat shares his insights and inspirations concerning the wooden flute, Irish traditional music and life in general – and concludes with an article entitled The Wooden Flute in New Zealand.

Posted July 2004: Pat Higgins Interview

Brendyn Montgomery Interview

Brendyn Montgomery is a New Zealand born Irish traditional musician who plays and teaches the wooden flute, whistle and fiddle. In 2003, Brendyn earned an M.A. in Traditional Irish Music Performance with First Class Honours from the University of Limerick; the first person in Australasia to do so. His debut album Mountain Air collected the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand’s 2004 Tui Music Award for Best Folk Album. Brendyn, records, travels and performs regularly, and is involved with Ceol Aneas in Nelson. In this interview he offers us his thoughts on growing up around the folk music scene; his development as a traditional Irish flute player and teacher, and shares with us his view of Irish music in New Zealand. His interview concludes with a short article entitled ‘Cultural Biodiversity: Finding a sense of place’.

Posted August 2004: Brendyn Montgomery Interview

Bob Bickerton Interview

Bob Bickerton is a stalwart member of the Irish traditional music scene in New Zealand and the current chairman of Ceol Aneas – New Zealand’s traditional Irish music workshops that are held in Nelson each year. A multi-instrumentalist performer, recording artist, composer, producer and recording engineer, Bob is also a past director of The Nelson School of Music who has encouraged the development of community programmes, with particular emphasis on children’s education. He has performed to over 150,000 students in schools over the last 20 years and has received critical acclaim for the quality of his educational programmes as well as his ability to engage children in an inspiring way.