Children’s group
May 15, 2013 By Bill Parry
A critically acclaimed children’s music group will perform at Windmuller Park on Thursday—as part of the second annual Irish Music Festival.
The group–whose members range from 8-to 15-years of age– play in an Irish ceili band (party band), where they play fiddles, banjos and drums.
The group has won a number of regional events in recent years and has just qualified for the All-Ireland Fleadh, in Derry, for a fourth year in a row.
The band, known by the name Gan Ainm, is made up of a number of students from Sunnyside, Westchester and Long Island. The students attend the Niall Mulligan School of Music at the New York Irish Center in LIC.
Gan Ainm will be one of the several groups to participate in the Jazz/Irish Music Festival, which begins at 6pm on Thursday. The event is being sponsored by Woodside on the Move, the grass roots community organization.
Gan Ainm garnered a great deal of local attention last year when it played in a number of pubs—as a means to raise funds for a trip to Ireland. This year, a St. Patrick’s Day performance at Flynn’s Garden Inn on Skillman Avenue raised the group’s profile even more.
Adrian Bordoni, the executive director of Woodside on the Move, noticed the band through social media. “The pub’s [Flynn’s] Facebook page was full of pictures and videos taken by customers,” he said.
“Folks still talk about the show the kids put on,” said Paul Flynn, the owner of Flynn’s. “They were supposed to play for two hours but they played for four– because of popular demand. It was the biggest crowd we’ve had here since the World Cup.”
UPDATE: THURSDAY: The concert is occurring. Woodside on the Move is referring to the event as a Jazz/Irish concert.
