Our Guest Tutors for 2024

Órlaith McAuliffe is one of the leading flute and whistle players in Irish traditional music, and holder of over 20 All-Ireland titles – at different age levels, solo, as well as in duos and trios. She was voted Young Musician of the Year in the 2016 TG4 Gradam Ceoil Awards. Raised in North London by parents from Killarney, she started under her mother’s tutelage on the whistle at nine years old. She is now a regular performer and workshop provider at Irish music festivals, and has been a member of the National Folk Orchestra of Ireland and the band Crossharbour. She is also a medical doctor, working on the front-line in the NHS. She collaborates musically with many different Irish musicians, including her concertina player sister Brogan, who holds 4 All-Ireland titles.

Dylan Carlos comes from a very musical family in Co Roscommon – a part of the country best known for flute playing. Dylan collaborates with many musicians, both within the Irish tradition and more broadly, performing regularly with Co. Tipperary singer-songwriter Cormac Looby. He has also played with the groups Gatehouse and Garadice. Dylan is part of the group Carlos Sweeney McCartin – their debut album (2019) garnered critical acclaim. He is a past All-Ireland winner on fiddle, and plays and teaches regularly at festivals around Ireland and abroad.

John McCartin from Newtowngore in County Leitrim, is both a guitar and fiddle player. He holds an MA in Traditional Music Performance from the University of Limerick. John is a member of the band Garadice, which was nominated for an RTE Folk Award in 2024, and performs as part of the trio, Carlos Sweeney McCartin. He has recorded and performed with the likes of Eleanor Shanley, Donal Lunny, Lunasa, Dervish, Back West and Vinnie Kilduff.

Wynton Moore is an uilleann piper from New Zealand, and has been living in Dublin since 2018. He played the highland bagpipes from a young age and first encountered the uilleann pipes around the age of 19. His piping has been influenced by the playing of Séamus Ennis, Robbie Hannan, and Seán McKiernan, among many others. He also loves listening to the fiddle and takes inspiration from this, especially Donegal fiddle music. Wynton teaches piping classes in Na Píobairí Uilleann, leads weekly sessions in Piper’s Corner in Dublin, and has appeared in the piping recital at Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy. He is also an aspiring singer, attending traditional singing sessions in Dublin, and has sung on RTÉ Radio’s Céilí House programme.

Dara O’Coisdealbha is an award-winning accordion player from a hugely talented musical family from Roscrea, steeped in the traditional Irish music of North Tipperary. He was immersed in music at a young age, at home among his siblings, and is strongly influenced by the music of Paddy O’Brien. Currently based in Australia, Dara is in huge demand due to his fine musicianship and lively performances.

Having grown up in Melbourne, Cameron attributes his love of Irish music to the fantastic Melbourne trad scene. Cam is best known for his relaxed and driving banjo style in the band Tolka. In 2014, Tolka received a mentorship grant from the Australia Council for the Arts (now known as Creative Australia), to live in Belfast and write an album alongside Flook legend Brian Finnegan. He is also well-known for his fiddle playing in the band Trioc, and regularly leads sessions in Melbourne. Cam lived in Dublin for a year in 2018 with his partner and fellow fiddle player Emma, where he attended summer schools and learnt from the depths of the trad scene, from Dublin to Clare, and across the country. Cam can often be found knee-deep in the nearest session. 

Aifric Boylan comes from a very musical family in County Kildare. The eldest of six children, all of whom play traditional music, she was just five years old when she started playing the fiddle, and spent her childhood summer holidays learning from legendary fiddle players at music festivals and fleadhanna across the country. A much respected fiddle teacher and sought after performer in Ireland, Aifric moved to Australia with her family in 2014, where she has continued her passion for passing the music on. She is a driving force at Comhaltas Melbourne, where she is teaching the next generation of young musicians. Aifric has played and tutored at many of Australia’s biggest folk festivals in recent years, both solo and in groups, and takes great pleasure in sharing her deep repertoire, drawing particular influence from the rich fiddle playing traditions of Clare and Kerry. She is delighted to appear at Ceol Aneas for the first time!

Born in Aberdeenshire and raised in New Zealand, Oscar is a fiddler, piper, and whistle player, currently based in Melbourne. He leads the popular Sunday session at The Last Jar and is a passionate performer and advocate for traditional music playing in Australia and New Zealand.

Initially learning classical violin, Oscar began playing traditional music after hearing the playing of Chieftains fiddler, Sean Keane. At the age of 16, several key encounters steered him towards learning the Scottish smallpipes and later the Irish whistle, Highland pipes and uilleann pipes. After completing an MA in Theatre Studies in 2015, his traditional music-playing and theatre experience saw him tour for several years as a musician with the Shakespearean theatre company Pop-up Globe in New Zealand and Australia, leading him to Melbourne. Over the last decade he has performed extensively with wooden flute and guitar player Rennie Pearson as the traditional music duo Polytropos, and recorded and toured for many projects as a fiddler, whistler, and piper, most recently collaborating with singer-songwriter Paul McLaney on An Arrow Made of Air – an album of songs and instrumentals inspired by British mythology and based on the book Storyland, by historian Amy Jeffs.

Proudly hailing from Dublin, Aoife was steeped in a rich musical tradition from a very young age. A fluent Irish speaker, she shares the same passion for music and the arts as her grandparents, who lived and breathed traditional Irish music and culture. Aoife studied music and German at Maynooth University, taking a particular interest in the traditional Irish music and popular culture modules presented by Adrian Scahill. In 2019, Aoife completed a Master’s degree in Primary Education and is passionate about bringing music and song into her classroom every day. It was here in Maynooth where her love of singing truly took flight as she immersed herself in the university’s dynamic choral music scene. In 2014 she performed as part of a live screening production of Gladiator in the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, Dublin, and sang at the annual Maynooth Christmas Carol Service from 2014-2017.

Aoife moved to New Zealand in 2022 and has been enjoying the flourishing Irish music scene in Christchurch and elsewhere around the country. 

Now living in Hawkes Bay, Helen has been teaching Irish dancing for 30 years, running classes in the UK before moving to New Zealand. Ceol Aneas students have enjoyed having her so much that she has been invited back for her third consecutive year. Helen and company gave a set dancing performance at Ceol Aneas 2021 – here’s the first figure of the Sliabh Luachra set.

The set dancing workshop will be held as at The Trafalger St Hall on Saturday and Old St Johns Hall on Sunday.  Sign up for this special workshop here.