Irish Music Ottawa

This not-for-profit webpage provides links to primarily Ottawa Valley, and Irish Traditional Music (ITM), activities in, or within a few hours of the Ottawa / National Capital Region of Canada. Music is a shared experience between musicians and the audience. Share with me so I can keep this webpage relevant and up to date. My contact info is at the bottom of the page. Thanks for dropping in!

This Irish Music Ottawa webpage contains information that is fairly steady over time.

For more information on concerts, workshops, theatre, and similar local Irish cultural events, then go to...

Monday	Carp Celtic Jam	7:30-9:30 PM, weekly, Masonic Lodge. Beginner supportive. Sheet music abounds. Fee $1 to $2 to cover hall expenses, (Carp location).
Tuesday	Tartan Pub and Grill	8PM, Every Tuesday, located in Orleans at corner of Jeanne D'Arc & Innes. KFC on the corner, in a strip mall, lots of parking. Irish, Scottish, Down-East, styles played and sung. A large, but quiet, pub with a 'semi-private' space for the musicians. Free (Ottawa East location). Contact Gordon, 613-824-8890.
Tuesday	Ottawa Celtic Choir	Please refer to the Irish Music Ottawa Blog postings.
Wednesday
	The Swan On The Rideau Pub	8PM, Town of Osgoode (at the junction of River Road and Roger Stevens Drive), open Irish/Celtic session; first Wednesday of every month. Friendly, relaxed session. Generally no sheet music. Free, and guests are welcome. Contact John Henderson at 613-489-0773, (Ottawa South location).
	Naismith Sports Pub	7:30 PM, weekly, 411 Ottawa St, Almonte, ph: 613-256-6336 (location). For more info contact Charlie Dunlap at: cdunlap at xplornet dot com.
	Not-So-Slow Session	7:30 PM, 2nd and 4th Wednesdays. Everyone gets a chance to start tunes at their own speed. For location, contact Rob: rcfroom \atsign/ magma \dot/ ca. Beginners welcome. No sheet music at this session. It is held in Hintonburg, Ottawa. Tune index here. Free.
Thursday	Ottawa Celtic Slow Jam	7:30 PM, weekly, fee $2. Sheet music welcome, beginners welcome, Glebe Community Centre (Glebe location).
Thursday	Daniel O'Connell's Pub	8 -12 PM, weekly, primarily experienced musicians, singers in English and Irish, guests welcome, free. No sheet music, (Hintonburg location). You never know what will happen, or who will show up, at this one. One free pint to musicians that participate (but don't forget to tip!). Always a great time.
Friday	No sessions	This space made with 100% filler. Here is a link to an interesting article entitled "How to Start and Run an Irish Slow Session (session dynamics)" by Chris Smith. Very good observations are made, and they apply not just to slow sessions. See also The 10 Commandments of Jamming.
Saturday	No sessions	See below for weekend events such as: Comhaltas ceili's, Old Sod Folk Society Contra Dancing, Irish stage plays, Concerts, etc. Also, refer to the IMO blog.
Sunday	Cape Breton Session	2-5 PM, First and third Sundays of every month, Royal Oak Pub 318 Bank St. at MacLaren. Primarily Cape Breton fiddle music (very few Irish tunes). Check the session site for set lists and the dots.
Sunday	Patty's Pub Session	2:30- 5:30 PM weekly, 1186 Bank St, Old Ottawa South. Currently it's been mostly fiddles and flutes that have been showing up (with their owners no less). No sheet music. Session is 'medium-to-advanced' players. Players should be comfortable with their instrument and able to play at moderate speed. When session may not be held: summer, Mother's/Father's Day, possibly other major holidays. Contact Ros.

Current Concert listings, Workshops, Festivals, Language schools, and other Irish Music Ottawa related news are now posted on the companion site, the Irish Music Ottawa BLOG. Depending on how often you check the blog, you may want to read back a month or two, to see what may be coming soon.

Ottawa Area	Ottawa Folklore Centre (Lessons, instrument sales, books, cds, etc.) Fiddle Lessons, private, with Don Fletcher, Cape Breton, Irish, Scottish, call 613-836-9410 Matt Pepin, fiddle lessons, Old Town Hall, Almonte, close Tues/Wed. Contact Matt at 613-265-7336 Denis Lanctot, fiddle and piano lessons, private, Cape Breton, French Canadian, Irish and Scottish, at any level. Call 613-422-1234. NEW Cindy Thompson (Professional fiddle entertainer/fiddle instructor. Irish, Scottish, Cape Breton, French Canadian, Canadian Old Time Fiddle style. All levels - private lessons, Workshops, fiddle camp instructor (Videos here and here). Alistair Dennett teaches bodhran, beginner to advanced, both 'Top End' and traditional styles, drums available 613 692 2097. Joanne Griffin Music, offers harp lessons in the Celtic style. Sherryl Fitzpatrick, fiddle and piano instruction, private and/or group classes, Old-tyme, French Canadian, Irish, Scottish, Cape Breton, all levels (613) 440-4343. The Gaelic Hour (Ottawa radio, 97.9 FM, streaming audio) - Sundays 8am - 10am. Music from the Glen (Carleton University radio, Sundays 11:30AM-1:00PM, 93.1 FM, streaming audio) Pipers and Pipe Bands Society of Ontario, Ottawa Branch (Highland piping). Glenngarry Place for the Arts (promoting all Celtic musical genres). Siegel Entertainment (The Lyon Street Celtic Band, Celtic North, and much more).
Montreal	Siamsa.org (Montreal, instruction, seisiuns, etc.) O' Regan's Session Tunebook (great resource material here, well organised site) Cine Gael Montreal, Irish cinema in Montreal L'Union des Breton du Canada Comhra, Irish language instruction
Towards Toronto..	Steafan Hannigan (professional musician and teacher, multi-instrumentalist) Daev Clysdale (Toronto. Lessons in Irish flute and tin whistle) Brockville Irish Cultural Society (promote the music and culture of Ireland in Brockville and area) Quinte Irish Canadian Society North American Gaeltacht (an area where Irish is spoken, in North America, in Ontario!)
Online Audio	Clare FM Trad archive (From the heart of trad country, consistently great!) Comhaltas site (music, video, updated often) In the Claddagh Ring every Friday evening between 6.30 and 8.00pm Pacific time.
Online Video	Comhaltas videos of Ottawa musicians The Full Set (Irish traditional music series presented by Daithi Ó Sé, produced for RTÉ Television) LiveTrad.com (live concerts streamed) Geantrai ("Lively Music", a hugely popular traditional music series which has become regular viewing for every musician and traditional music follower in Ireland, produced for RTÉ Television)
Tunes, Archives	TheSession.org - Huge archive of session music O'Neill's Music of Ireland (a classic collection of Celtic sheet music. There are 1850 tunes in the collection) J.C's ABC Tunefinder (search for tunes in ABC format) Henrik Norbeck's ABC Tunes (counting 1661 Irish Tunes!) Tune-O-Tron at ABC overt-A-Matic (convert ABC data to pdf and midi) The Fiddler's File Companion List (ABC files, historical notes on many tunes) Slowplayers.org (Session tunes in midi audio format) The Irish Music Review (Reviews of more than 430 releases) TradTune It is conceptually similar to "Tunes" section of the popular site thesession.org, with some added functionality (such as one-click tune transposition, tune playback, etc.). Of course, since the site is only a few days old, its database is still very limited; however, it is hoped that the tune selection will grow rapidly as the site increases in popularity. Irish Music.net (Traditional Irish Music CDs, festivals, musicians, summer schools, and more)
Practice & Instruction	TradLessons.com (very good for whistlers, pipers, guitar, series also posted on YouTube) TradSchool.com (online music and learning) Fordham University (whistle lessons on YouTube with Ryan Dunn, very good player) Virtual Session (BBC website, very slick, play along!) Victor Maltby, teaches fiddle in Carleton Place, phone number is 613-250-0729 Alf Warnock's Page (nice page, lots of useful info here) Irish Flute Tunes (lots of tunes, audio with tempo increasing from slow to quick for each tune) Slowplay CD A collection of some of the most popular session tunes in the celtic repertoire, all played at a slow to moderate tempo. Played on guitar and bodhran. Folk of the Wood, good webpage for beginners of many traditional stringed instruments. Mandolin players, and those that want to learn, go here! Lessons with James Kelly via the internet. TG4 Irish Musician of the Year 2006.
Historical	A Pocket History of Irish Traditional Music (Gearóid O hAllmhuráin, presently at Concordia University, Montreal) Rough Guide to Irish Music (Amazon.ca link) - an 'encyclopedia' of Irish musicians and groups Music of Ireland, Traditional Music Sessions (Wikipedia links) History of Irish Dancing
Humour	Traditional instrument jokes Pat O'Reilly's 2000 years of Irish Music

7:30-9:30 PM, weekly, Masonic Lodge. Beginner supportive. Sheet music abounds. Fee $1 to $2 to cover hall expenses, (Carp location).

Please refer to the Irish Music Ottawa Blog postings.

8PM, Town of Osgoode (at the junction of River Road and Roger Stevens Drive), open Irish/Celtic session; first Wednesday of every month. Friendly, relaxed session. Generally no sheet music. Free, and guests are welcome. Contact John Henderson at 613-489-0773, (Ottawa South location).

7:30 PM, weekly, 411 Ottawa St, Almonte, ph: 613-256-6336 (location). For more info contact Charlie Dunlap at: cdunlap at xplornet dot com.

7:30 PM, 2nd and 4th Wednesdays. Everyone gets a chance to start tunes at their own speed. For location, contact Rob: rcfroom \atsign/ magma \dot/ ca. Beginners welcome. No sheet music at this session. It is held in Hintonburg, Ottawa. Tune index here. Free.

7:30 PM, weekly, fee $2. Sheet music welcome, beginners welcome, Glebe Community Centre (Glebe location).

This space made with 100% filler. Here is a link to an interesting article entitled "How to Start and Run an Irish Slow Session (session dynamics)" by Chris Smith. Very good observations are made, and they apply not just to slow sessions. See also The 10 Commandments of Jamming.

See below for weekend events such as: Comhaltas ceili's, Old Sod Folk Society Contra Dancing, Irish stage plays, Concerts, etc. Also, refer to the IMO blog.

2-5 PM, First and third Sundays of every month, Royal Oak Pub 318 Bank St. at MacLaren. Primarily Cape Breton fiddle music (very few Irish tunes). Check the session site for set lists and the dots.

7:30 PM, 2nd and 4th Wednesdays. Everyone gets a chance to start tunes at their own speed. For location, contact Rob: rcfroom \atsign/ magma \dot/ ca. Beginners welcome. No sheet music at this session. It is held in Hintonburg, Ottawa.
Tune index here. Free.