{"id":22133,"date":"2021-06-24T11:00:48","date_gmt":"2021-06-24T15:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=22133"},"modified":"2021-06-26T11:03:46","modified_gmt":"2021-06-26T15:03:46","slug":"presenting-two-of-irelands-greatest-flutists-joanie-madden-and-james-galway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=22133","title":{"rendered":"Presenting Two Of Ireland’s Greatest Flutists, Joanie Madden And James Galway"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"I just got news from a great friend of mine Mary Reed about another good friend and that is the one and only Joanie Madden of that super group Cherish the Ladies. It all happened last Tuesday when the\u00a0National Endowment for the Arts\u00a0(NEA) announced its newest class of\u00a0National Heritage fellows: nine individuals and groups who represent the richness and breadth of America\u2019s folk and traditional arts.\u00a0This year\u2019s class of fellows includes artists and creators from African-American, Mexican-American, Native, Filipino, Irish-American and Puerto Rican backgrounds, whose array of mediums span many kinds of music, ribbon and lace work, tap dance and filmmaking. Several musicians and groups were inducted among this year\u2019s honorees. The best-known are the Mexican-American band\u00a0Los Lobos, from Los Angeles, who are cited for having \u201cthe East Los Angeles sonic landscape for nearly a half century,\u201d and the Irish-American flute and whistle player\u00a0Joanie Madden\u00a0from Yonkers, NY, who is the founder of the group\u00a0Cherish the Ladies. This woman never stops and I am saying that in a professional way as she is just fabulous in all that she does. <\/p>\n

Joanie Madden is recognized as one of the most influential women in Irish music worldwide, with an accomplished career as a composer, recording artist, and performer. One of the great flute and whistle players of her generation\u2014and steeped in a generations-long musical tradition that she proudly champions to audiences around the world\u2014she is a leading presence in the advancement of traditional Irish music, from its community grassroots to its modern presentation in the international concert hall.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I am now going to give you a little history of one of the greatest flutists I have seen in my lifetime and I have seen quite a few: She was born in the Bronx, New York and Madden\u2019s musical passion was ignited by her father, Joe Madden of County Galway Ireland, an accordion player and well-known bandleader in New York\u2019s Irish-immigrant community. The family home was a vibrant musical space, and she spent her early childhood completely immersed in the practice. She began learning the tin whistle from Jack Coen (NEA National Heritage Fellow, 1991), and would often enthusiastically practice in school by tapping the notes on a wooden pencil held to her mouth. She advanced through the competitive music circuit, becoming the first American to win the Senior title at the All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil (Festival of Music) on the tin whistle in 1984.
\nHer \u201cSongs of the Irish Whistle\u201d\u00a0albums (1996, 1999) are among the most successful whistle albums ever sold. Described as \u201cvirtuosic\u201d by her peers, Madden\u2019s playing is praised for being uniquely expressive, ranging from jubilant upbeat reels to meditative ballads and slow airs. Rather than playing with the wooden flute, which is standard amongst traditional Irish musicians, she plays on silver flutes more common with classical musicians. This affords a greater range of playing capability while paradoxically complicating the common ornamentations of traditional Irish playing, creating her distinct style.<\/p>\n

In 1985, Madden began leading what is now one of the most commercially and critically successful music groups in Irish traditional music. Cherish the Ladies, the first all-female troupe of its kind, has gained international fame and has notably achieved honorable status within the symphony hall environment. In continuing the family tradition of bandleading, Madden has become an immensely respected figure. Her multidimensional understanding of music is informed by decades of casual Irish traditional music sessions, or\u00a0seisi\u00fans, professional production work, and a broad understanding of Irish cultural practice, including dance. This, with her vibrant charisma and heartwarming sincerity, has instilled among fellow artists a unique level of trust in her leadership and direction, while preserving a genuine sense of collaboration and partnership. <\/p>\n

Madden continues to bear the mantle of tradition-keeping through regular educational engagements, including ethnomusicology-focused bus tours through Ireland and cruises offering Irish workshops and dance lessons. She leads workshops at the storied Catskills Irish Arts Week in Durham, New York, and has served as director of Augusta Heritage Celtic Music Week in Elkins, West Virginia. She actively mentors\u2019 flute and tin whistle students and has proudly coached three All-Ireland champion-winning tin whistle musicians. I am sure we will get a chance to see and hear Joanie perform soon with her group Cherish the Ladies now that this pandemic is subsiding at last and almost under control. We here at The Irish Examiner would like to personally to say congratulations to Joanie Madden and keep it going.<\/p>\n

\"\"Now that I just introduced one of Irish American\u2019s greatest flute players, I am now going to introduce one of the world\u2019s greatest flute players that I know Joanie admires very well. Yes, none other than James Galway<\/strong>. James is an Irish\u00a0virtuoso\u00a0flute player from Belfast, nicknamed \u201cThe Man with the Golden Flute\u201d. He established an international career as a solo\u00a0flute player. In 2005, he received the\u00a0Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music\u00a0at the\u00a0Classic Brit Awards. <\/p>\n

Galway was born in North Belfast as one of two brothers. His father, who played the flute, was employed at the\u00a0Harland and Wolff\u00a0shipyard until the end of the Second World War and spent night-shifts cleaning buses after the war, while his mother, a pianist, was a winder in a flax-spinning mill. Surrounded by a tradition of flute bands and many friends and family members who played the instrument, he was taught the flute by his uncle at the age of nine and joined his\u00a0fife and drum corps. <\/p>\n

At the age of eleven Galway won the junior, senior, and open Belfast flute Championships in a single day. His first instrument was a five-key\u00a0Irish flute, and at the age of twelve or thirteen, he received a\u00a0Boehm\u00a0instrument. He left school at the age of fourteen and worked as an apprentice to a piano repairer for two years. He subsequently studied the flute at the\u00a0Royal College of Music\u00a0under John Francis and at the\u00a0Guildhall School of Music\u00a0under\u00a0Geoffrey Gilbert. He then briefly studied at the\u00a0Paris Conservatoire\u00a0under\u00a0Gaston Crunelle. While in Paris, he asked for lessons from the celebrated French flute player\u00a0Jean-Pierre Rampal, who offered him advice on his playing, but felt he was already too good a flute player to need lessons from either Rampal or the conservatory. <\/p>\n

He left Paris to take up his first orchestral flute-playing job at\u00a0Sadler\u2019s Wells Opera\u00a0in London. He went on to spend fifteen years as an orchestral player. In addition to Sadler\u2019s Wells, he played with\u00a0Covent Garden Opera, the\u00a0London Symphony Orchestra\u00a0and the\u00a0Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.\u00a0He auditioned for the\u00a0Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra\u00a0under\u00a0Herbert von Karajan\u00a0and was principal flute in the orchestra from 1969 to 1975. To Karajan\u2019s surprise and dismay, after a period of some disagreement, Galway decided that he would leave to pursue a solo career. <\/p>\n

In addition to his performances of the standard classical repertoire, he features contemporary music in his programs, including new flute works commissioned by and for him by composers including\u00a0David Amram,\u00a0Malcolm Arnold,\u00a0William Bolcom,\u00a0John Corigliano,\u00a0John Wolf Brennan, Dave Heath,\u00a0Lowell Liebermann\u00a0and\u00a0Joaqu\u00edn Rodrigo. The album\u00a0\u201cJames Galway and The Chieftains in Ireland\u201d\u00a0by Galway and\u00a0The Chieftains\u00a0reached number 32 in the\u00a0UK Albums Chart\u00a0in 1987. Galway still performs regularly and is one of the world\u2019s best-known flute players. His recordings have sold over 30 million copies. <\/p>\n

In 1990, he was invited by\u00a0Roger Waters\u00a0to play at\u00a0\u201cThe Wall \u2013 Live in Berlin\u201d\u00a0concert, held in\u00a0Potsdamer Platz; he played Pink Floyd\u2019s songs \u201cGoodbye Blue Sky\u201d and \u201cIs There Anybody Out There?\u201d. Galway performed for the Academy Award-winning ensemble recording\u00a0the soundtracks\u00a0of\u00a0Peter Jackson\u2019s\u00a0The Lord of the Rings\u00a0film trilogy, composed by\u00a0Howard Shore. In June 2008, he was inducted into the\u00a0Hollywood Bowl\u00a0Hall of Fame along with\u00a0Liza Minnelli\u00a0and\u00a0B.B. King. <\/p>\n

He performs on Nagahara flutes, as well as some\u00a0Muramatsu Flutes.\u00a0Conn-Selmer\u00a0produces his line of flutes, \u201cGalway Spirit Flutes\u201d. Galway is president of Flutewise, a global charitable organization that supports young flute players,\u00a0run by Liz Goodwin. In 2003 he formed the Music Education Consortium together with\u00a0Julian Lloyd Webber,\u00a0Evelyn Glennie, and\u00a0Michael Kamen\u00a0to pressure the British Government into providing better music education in schools. He is an Ambassador for the National Foundation for Youth Music, a UK charity. He was made an\u00a0Officer of the Order of the British Empire\u00a0(OBE) in 1977, and was\u00a0knighted\u00a0in 2001, the first wind player ever to receive that honor.\u00a0He is a National Patron of\u00a0Delta Omicron, an international professional music fraternity. <\/p>\n

In December 2013 Galway launched\u00a0First Flute, an online interactive series of lessons for beginning flute students of all ages. He received the 2014\u00a0Gramophone Lifetime Achievement Award. <\/p>\n

Galway has been married three times. His first marriage, to a Frenchwoman, produced a son. He married his second wife, Anna (Annie) Renggli, a daughter of a well-known Swiss architect, in 1972, and moved from Berlin to\u00a0Lucerne, Switzerland, her hometown. The couple had twin daughters and a son. <\/p>\n

In 1978 he recorded for her an\u00a0instrumental\u00a0version of\u00a0John Denver\u2019s \u201cAnnie\u2019s Song\u201d. It peaked at No. 3 in the\u00a0UK Singles Chart. After their divorce, he moved to\u00a0Meggen, Switzerland, a village next to Lucerne, where he resides now with his third wife, the American-born\u00a0Jeanne Galway\u00a0(n\u00e9e Cinnante), whom he married in 1984. <\/p>\n

They often tour together, playing duets. In addition, they give master classes. Galway is a devout Christian who visits various types of churches while travelling (as long as they are not modern and \u201chappy-clappy\u201d) and prays before his concert performances.\u00a0He also wears a\u00a0cross pendant, about which he says, \u201cIt\u2019s not jewelery. It\u2019s something that reminds me of what I should be doing and how I should be behaving.\u201d<\/p>\n

In August 1977, Galway was run over by a speeding motorcycle in Lucerne, breaking his left arm and both legs and required a four-month hospital stay. He has the eye condition\u00a0nystagmus, and is a patron of the Nystagmus Network, a charity that supports people with the condition. In December 2009, he fell down a flight of stairs at his home, fracturing his left wrist and breaking his right arm. <\/p>\n

Appearing on\u00a0The Nolan Show\u00a0in June 2015, Galway stated that he views his national identity as Irish. He was critical of the actions of the Northern Irish government during his childhood, and singled out prominent\u00a0Unionist\u00a0figures such as\u00a0Ian Paisley\u00a0for fostering the division that led to\u00a0The Troubles. His comments were criticized by prominent Unionist politicians, among them\u00a0Sammy Wilson. <\/p>\n

Describing Northern Ireland as \u201cthe British-occupied part of Ireland,\u201d Galway further elaborated he would like \u201cIreland to be Ireland\u201d and that when people ask him where he comes from, he says \u201cIreland\u201d and when asked if he is Irish, he replies affirmatively. <\/p>\n

James’s younger brother\u00a0George Galway is a\u00a0jazz\u00a0musician (clarinet, flute, and\u00a0saxophone) and teacher based in\u00a0Manchester, England. George\u2019s elder child and James\u2019s nephew,\u00a0Martin Galway, is a musician known for his work on\u00a0Commodore 64\u00a0computer game music in the 1980s.<\/p>\n

Now where would you read about two of the greatest Irish flutists on the same page? Well yes, only in The Irish Examiner USA, now isn\u2019t that something?<\/p>\n

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