Piper Mick O’Brien was born in Dublin in 1961. He began his musical education on the uilleann pipes at the city’s famous Thomas Street Pipers Club. The O’Briens are a musical family; Mick’s father and four brothers played and Mick recorded his first album with them when he was just 13 years old. He later joined Na Piobairí Uilleann, an organisation founded to promote piping, where he refined his playing still further. His highly acclaimed solo CD, May Morning Dew, was released in 1996 and in 2003, he released Kitty Lie Over with fiddler Caoimhin Ó Raghallaigh. It was named best traditional album of the year by New York’s Irish Echo. The duo’s second album was released in 2011.

He has broadcast and recorded extensively. His playing can be heard on numerous recordings with artists such as The Dubliners, Frankie Gavin, Charlie Lennon, Charlotte Church, Boys of the Lough, Altan and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra. For the past five years, he has performed and travelled with Norwegian group Secret Garden and has played on their last two albums, Dawn of a New Century and Once in a Red Moon.

He is much in demand as a teacher and has toured extensively and given master classes throughout Europe and North America. He lives in Dublin with his wife and three children and holds down a full time job as a teacher at St Davids School in Artane, where he teaches geography and Irish and looks after the school’s hurlers.

Uilleann Pipes Workshop

Mick O’Brien

London Irish Centre

Sat 28th Oct – 11am – 1pm

Tickets:

£10 / £6 under 18s