Here is a man that I have admired for a very long time and I’ve never given him the credit that he deserves as a musician, and that is the one and only Mick Maloney from Limerick. He has also been doing a lot of charity work from here to Bangkok, Thailand for under-privileged children in orphanages that goes unnoticed and does it with grace and no celebrity influence for a very long long time.
Mick has taught a lot of musicians how to progress in the music business, again with out a sweat on his brow. Mick is a legend in the Irish community never looking for the stardom that he deserves as he just gets on with it. Here is an introduction to this master musician that I am proud to bring you.
Michael Moloney is a traditional Irish musician and scholar. Born in Limerick, he was an important figure on the Dublin folk-song revival in the 1960s. In 1973, he moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He gained early fame as a member of the Irish group The Emmet Folk Group and The Johnstons but has since performed and recorded with a variety of groups and individuals, including Eugene O’’Donnell and Séamus Egan, and Marie and Martin Reilly; he also worked closely with The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem.
Moloney served as the artistic director for several major arts tours, including the Green Fields of America, an ensemble of Irish musicians, singers, and dancers which toured across the US on several occasions. He has produced and performed on over seventy albums and acted as advisor for scores of festivals and concerts all over America.
In 1992, Moloney received a Ph.D. in Folklore and Folklife from the University of Pennsylvania. For his work in public folklore, he received a 1999 National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1999, he was named Best Tenor Banjo Player by Frets magazine. He has taught ethnomusicology, folklore, and Irish studies at the University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown, Villanova, and New York University.
Founded in 2000 by Moloney, the Washington Square Harp and Shamrock Orchestra (WSHSO) is based at New York University and made up of musicians from the city’s Irish music community. The WSHSO plays traditional Irish music, with a focus on older tunes, tunes with history, and tunes with interesting stories attached.
Moloney is the author of “Far From the Shamrock Shore: The Story of Irish American History Through Song” released by Crown Publications in February 2002 with an accompanying CD on Shanachie Records. He has hosted three nationally syndicated series of folk music on American Public Television; was a consultant, performer, and interviewee on the Irish Television special “Bringing It All Back Home”; a participant, consultant, and music arranger of the PBS documentary film “Out of Ireland”; and a performer on the PBS special “The Irish in America: Long Journey Home”.
Moloney combines the careers of folklorist, musicologist, arts presenter and advocate, professional musician, and professor of music and Irish studies. In 1999 he was awarded the National Heritage Award from the National Endowment for the Arts — the highest official honor a traditional artist can receive in the United States. Mick received the Presidential Distinguished Service Award from the President of Ireland in November of 2013.
“Our diaspora has worked incredibly hard at disseminating Irish culture in their new homes around the world, including our music and song, our film and theatre, our traditional sports and our incredibly rich literary tradition,” said President Michael D Higgins as he presented the award. “As a man who has made music his life, Dr. Mick Moloney’s depth of knowledge of traditional Irish music and its links with other folk genres has been generously shared with students and with music lovers across the world. It is creative people like Mick who have contributed to the wonderful reputation that Ireland enjoys for the quality of its art and culture, allowing the rest of us to walk with pride in this reflected glory.”
Now is that well said or what, as this musician has been under our noses all those years and working and playing without a bother and that is what Mick Maloney is all about and we here at The Irish Examiner USA are very proud of him as well.