Mick O'Brien (born March 26, 1961) is an Irish musician.

Life

Born in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

, Ireland, Mick began his musical education on the

uilleann pipes The uilleann pipes ( or , ) are the characteristic national bagpipe of Ireland. Earlier known in English as "union pipes", their current name is a partial translation of the Irish language terms (literally, "pipes of the elbow"), from their ...

in the renowned Thomas Street Pipers Club in Dublin. His father Dinny O'Brien, a traditional "box" player, was also a constant source of tunes and inspiration. Mick recorded his first LP with his family when he was 13 years old. He later joined

Na Píobairí Uilleann Na Píobairí Uilleann (; meaning "The Uilleann Pipers") is a non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of the Irish Uilleann pipes and its music. Organisation NPU was founded in 1968 under the impetus of researcher and collector Breand ...

, an organisation founded to promote piping, where he absorbed hundreds of tunes and refined his technique. His playing can be heard on numerous recordings with artists such as

The Dubliners The Dubliners were an Folk music of Ireland, Irish folk band founded in Dublin in 1962 as The Ronnie Drew Ballad Group, named after its founding member; they subsequently renamed themselves The Dubliners. The line-up saw many changes in personn ...

, Frankie Gavin and the

RTÉ Concert Orchestra The RTÉ Concert Orchestra is one of the two full-time professional radio orchestras in Ireland that are part of RTÉ, the national broadcasting station. Since its formation as the Radio Éireann Light Orchestra in 1948, the RTÉ Concert Orchestr ...

. Mick has toured extensively and given master classes throughout Europe and North America. His highly acclaimed solo CD of

traditional Irish music Irish traditional music (also known as Irish trad, Irish folk music, and other variants) is a genre of folk music that developed in Ireland. In ''A History of Irish Music'' (1905), W. H. Grattan Flood wrote that, in Gaelic Ireland, there w ...

; " May Morning Dew" was released in 1996. In 2003, Mick released ''Kitty Lie Over'' along with

fiddle A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, th ...

Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh (born 28 August 1979) is a fiddler, born in Dublin, Ireland, who attended Trinity College Dublin, becoming a Scholar in Theoretical Physics (1999) and earning a First Class BA degree (as the top student of his class) in 20 ...

. It was named No.1 Traditional Album of 2003 by Earle Hitchner in the

Irish Echo ''The Irish Echo'' is a weekly Irish Americans, Irish-American newspaper based in Manhattan in the United States. In 2007, Máirtín Ó Muilleoir, Irish businessman and publisher of the ''Andersonstown News'', purchased the paper. Founded in 1 ...

. 2011 saw the release of Mick's second album with Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh. The new album is named Deadly Buzz Aoibhinn Crónán. Mick is former a teacher in St Davids C.B.S in Artane Dublin, where he taught Geography and Irish, among other subjects. Mick also looked after the hurlers of the school. Mick has worked with several Irish composers including

Michael Holohan Michael Holohan (born 27 March 1956) is an Irish composer. Biography Michael Holohan was born in Drumcondra, Dublin. He was educated at O'Connell's Schools, University College Dublin (BA, 1978) and Queen's University in Belfast. He studied co ...

Linda Buckley
and Dave Flynn. He premiered the first ever set of

Étude An étude (; ) or study is an instrumental musical composition, usually short, designed to provide practice material for perfecting a particular musical skill. The tradition of writing études emerged in the early 19th century with the rapidl ...

s for Uilleann Pipes in 2011 at the Masters of Tradition Festival in Bantry. They were composed for him by Dave Flynn.

Pipes and whistles

Mick's concert pitch uilleann pipes were built by William Rowsome in 1921, with a new chanter and extra A/G drone made by Alain Froment, who also made Mick's Bb, B, and C sets. His whistles were made by Mike Burke in the USA.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Obrien, Mick Irish uilleann pipers 1961 births Living people