Mike Rafferty (1926–2011) was an Irish traditional flute player. Rafferty was born on 26 September 1926 and grew up on a farm in Ballinakill,

Co. Galway "Righteousness and Justice" , anthem = () , image_map = Island of Ireland location map Galway.svg , map_caption = Location in Ireland , area_footnotes = , area_total_km2 = ...

, Ireland. He learned music mainly from his father, Tom "Barrel" Rafferty who played the flute and uilleann pipes. Rafferty emigrated to the United States in 1949 and settled in northern New Jersey. He became known in the Irish traditional music scene in greater New York City and appeared at an extensive array of concerts and festivals all over US including the Smithsonian Institution's Bicentennial Festival of American Folklife in 1976, and toured with the

Green Fields of America The Green Fields of America is an ensemble that performs and promotes Irish traditional music in the United States. It was formed in 1977 in Philadelphia, led by musician and folklorist Mick Moloney. They perform Irish and Irish-American culture ...

. Rafferty was influential in helping Ireland's traditional music organization Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann (CCE) establish itself in North America through the

Martin Mulvihill Martin Mulvihill (born in Ballygoughlin, County Limerick, Ireland in 1923; died 21 July 1987) was an Irish traditional musician, composer, teacher, and author. He composed roughly 25 tunes in the Irish traditional style. Although his mother Br ...

Branch; since then, a branch has been named after him, the Michael Rafferty Branch in New Jersey. Rafferty made three recordings with his daughter, multi-instrumentalist Mary Rafferty Clancy, a solo recording, and a recording with fiddler Willie Kelly. He taught extensively, both privately and at The

Catskills Irish Week The Catskill Mountains, also known as the Catskills, are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains, located in southeastern New York. As a cultural and geographic region, the Catskills are generally defined as those areas cl ...

, the

Augusta Heritage Center Augusta Heritage Center in Elkins, West Virginia, United States, is a non-profit organization which fosters the scholarly study and practice of traditional arts in music, dance, craft, and folklore. The program started in 1973 as a summer program ...

, and the New Jersey State Council on the

Folk Arts Apprenticeship Program Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Folk Plus or Folk ...

. In 2003, Rafferty was named ''Irish Echos Traditional Musician of the Year. In 2010, he was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts. With

Paddy Carty Paddy Carty (1929–1980) was a three-time all-Ireland champion Irish flute player from Loughrea, County Galway. He was well known for his flowing rhythm and his virtuoso skill on his Radcliff System flute, on which he could play freely in key ...

, Jack Coen, and a few others, Rafferty was known as one of the best exponents of the East Galway style of flute playing, a rolling, lyrical style that is somewhat slower and less ornamented than other Irish traditional flute styles.

Discography

* ''The Dangerous Reel'' (with Mary Rafferty), 1995. * ''The Old Fireside Music'' (with Mary Rafferty), 1998. * ''The Road from Ballinakill'' (with Mary Rafferty), 2001. * ''Speed 78'', 2004. * ''The New Broom'' (with Willie Kelly), 2009.

References

External links

* http://comhaltas.ie/music/detail/comhaltaslive_203_2_mike_rafferty/ * http://comhaltas.ie/music/detail/comhaltaslive_242_5_mike_rafferty_on_irish_flute/
Interview with Mike Rafferty

Rafferty Music
{{DEFAULTSORT:Raffertry, Mike 1926 births 2011 deaths People from County Galway Irish flautists National Heritage Fellowship winners