Paddy O'Brien

St Paul, MN
A product of County Offaly in the midlands of Ireland, Paddy O’Brien is regarded by serious players and collectors of Irish traditional music as one of the tradition’s most important repositories; in a musical career that spans nearly forty years, he has collected more than 3,000 compositions -jigs, reels, hornpipes, airs, and marches, including many rare and unusual tunes. His mastery of the two-row button accordion was also acknowledged through prestigious awards: he was named Oireachtas champion four times, and All-Ireland senior accordion champion in 1975. In Ireland, he played and recorded with the famed Castle Ceili Band and Ceoltoiri Laighean. Paddy has taught at the prestigious Willie Clancy Summer School held in Milltown Malbay, County Clare, and three times served as a master artist in the Minnesota State Arts Board Folk Arts Apprenticeship Program. In the fall of 1994, he received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to record and annotate 500 tunes from his vast repertoire of traditional music; the result of that effort, The Paddy O’Brien Tune Collection: A Personal Treasury of Irish Jigs and Reels, has received accolades from players of Irish music around the world.

Paddy O'Brien's Website