Irish Music Ottawa

This not-for-profit webpage provides links to primarily Ottawa Valley, and Irish Traditional Music (ITM), activities in, or within a few hours to a day's drive, of the Ottawa / National Capital Region of Canada. Music is a shared experience between musicians and the audience. Share with me so I can keep this webpage relevant and up to date. My contact info is at the bottom of the page. Thanks for dropping in!

Monday	Carp Celtic Jam	7:30-9:30 PM, weekly, Masonic Lodge. Beginner supportive. Sheet music abounds. Fee $1 to $2 to cover hall expenses, (Carp location).
Monday	Comhaltas Seisiún	N/A
Tuesday	Tartan Pub and Grill	8PM, Every Tuesday, located in Orleans at corner of Jeanne D'Arc & Innes. KFC on the corner, in a strip mall, lots of parking. Irish, Scottish, Down-East, styles played and sung. A large, but quiet, pub with a 'semi-private' space for the musicians. Free (Ottawa East location). Contact Gordon, 613-824-8890.
Tuesday	Ottawa Celtic Choir	Please refer to the Irish Music Ottawa Blog posting.
Wednesday
	The Swan On The Rideau Pub	8PM, Town of Osgoode (at the junction of River Road and Roger Stevens Drive), open Irish/Celtic session; first Wednesday of every month. Friendly, relaxed session. Generally no sheet music. Free and guests are welcome. Contact John Henderson at 613-489-0773, (Ottawa South location).
	Ballygiblin's Restaurant and Pub	8-10 PM, most weeks, 151 Bridge St., Carleton Place. Contact David Hauraney 613-257-5594 (Carleton Place location).
	Not-So-Slow Session	Everyone gets a chance to start tunes at their own speed. For location, contact Rob: froom \atsign/ csv \dot/ ca. Beginners welcome. No sheet music at this session. It is held in Hintonburg, Ottawa, starting at 7 pm and going until we stop. Tune index here. Free.
	"Matt Pepin" Session	D'Arcy McGee's, Sparks Street Mall, downtown Ottawa, session for very good players. 9PM
Thursday	Ottawa Celtic Slow Jam	7:30 PM, weekly, fee $2. Sheet music abounds, beginners welcome (Glebe location).
	Daniel O'Connell's Pub	9 -12 PM, weekly, primarily experienced musicians, singers in English and Irish, guests welcome, free. No sheet music, (Hintonburg location). You never know what will happen, or who will show up, at this one. One free pint to musicians that participate (but don't forget to tip!). Always a great time.
	Naismith Sports Pub	7 PM, weekly, 411 Ottawa St, Almonte, ph: 613-256-6336 (location). For more info contact Charlie Dunlap at: cdunlap at xplornet dot com.
Friday	No sessions	This space made with 100% filler. Here is a link to an interesting article entitled "How to Start and Run an Irish Slow Session (session dynamics)" by Chris Smith. Very good observations are made, and they apply not just to slow sessions. See also The 10 Commandments of Jamming.
Saturday	No sessions	See below for weekend events such as: Comhaltas ceili's, Old Sod Folk Society Contra Dancing, Irish stage plays, Concerts, etc.
Sunday	Cape Breton Session	2-5 PM, first and third Sundays of every month, Royal Oak Pub 318 Bank St. at MacLaren. Primarily Cape Breton fiddle music (very few Irish tunes). Check the session site for set lists and the dots.

Ottawa Area	Ottawa Folklore Centre (Lessons, instrument sales, books, cds, etc.) Daev Clysdale (Lessons in Irish flute and tin whistle) Fiddle Lessons, private, with Don Fletcher, Cape Breton, Irish, Scottish, call 613-836-9410 Matt Pepin, fiddle lessons, Old Town Hall, Almonte, close Tues/Wed. Contact Matt at 613-265-7336 Denis Lanctot, fiddle and piano lessons, private, Cape Breton, French Canadian, Irish and Scottish, at any level. Call 613-422-1234. Alistair Dennett teaches bodhran, beginner to advanced, both 'Top End' and traditional styles, drums available 613 692 2097. Joanne Griffin Music, offers harp lessons in the Celtic style Sherryl Fitzpatrick, fiddle and piano instruction, private and/or group classes, Old-tyme, French Canadian, Irish, Scottish, Cape Breton, all levels (613) 440-4343. Gaelic-Irish Hour (Ottawa radio, 97.9 FM, streaming audio) - Sundays 8am - 10am. Music from the Glen (Ottawa radio, Sundays 11:30AM-1:00PM, 93.1 FM, streaming audio) Pipers and Pipe Bands Society of Ontario, Ottawa Branch (Highland piping) Glenngarry Place for the Arts (promoting all Celtic musical genres)
Montreal	Siamsa.org (Montreal, instruction, seisiuns, etc.) O' Regan's Session Tunebook (great resource material here, well organised site) Cine Gael Montreal, Irish cinema in Montreal L'Union des Breton du Canada Comhra, Irish language instruction
Towards Toronto..	Steafan Hannigan (professional musician and teacher, Uillean pipes, bodhran, whistle, and many other instruments) Brockville Irish Cultural Society (promote the music and culture of Ireland in Brockville and area)
Online Audio	Clare FM Radio (daily radio show of Irish traditional music, County Clare, Ireland, consistently great!) Comhaltas site (music, video, updated often) OFC's Andy Daub on CBC Ottawa Morning 16 Aug 2007 ('Real Audio')
Online Video	Comhaltas videos of Ottawa musicians The Full Set (Irish traditional music series presented by Daithi Ó Sé, produced for RTÉ Television) J. F. Kennedy Center performances (very good groups)
Tunes, Archives	TheSession.org - Huge archive of session music J.C's ABC Tunefinder (search for tunes in ABC format) Henrik Norbeck's ABC Tunes (counting 1661 Irish Tunes!) Tune-O-Tron at ABC overt-A-Matic (convert ABC data to pdf and midi) The Fiddler's File Companion List (ABC files, historical notes on many tunes) Slowplayers.org (Session tunes in midi audio format) The Irish Music Review (Reviews of more than 430 releases) TradTunes.com (free 30 second samples of every track, which is why I'm linking to it) CAPETRAD page with large song lyric and ABC tune archives.
Practice & Instruction	Trad Lessons.com (very good for whistlers, pipers, guitar, series also posted on YouTube) Fordham University (whistle lessons on YouTube with Ryan Dunn, very good player) Virtual Session (BBC website, very slick, play along!) Victor Maltby, teaches fiddle in Carleton Place, phone number is 613-250-0729 Alf Warnock's Page (nice page, lots of useful info here) BestPractice - An open-source audio time-stretching tool for Windows (slow down recorded music without changing the pitch - freeware) Irish Flute Tunes (lots of tunes, audio with tempo increasing from slow to quick for each tune) Slowplay CD A collection of some of the most popular session tunes in the celtic repertoire, all played at a slow to moderate tempo. Played on guitar and bodhran. Folk of the Wood, good webpage for beginners of many traditional stringed instruments Lessons with James Kelly via the internet. TG4 Irish Musician of the Year 2006.
Historical	A Pocket History of Irish Traditional Music (Gearóid O hAllmhuráin) Rough Guide to Irish Music (Amazon.ca link) - an 'encyclopedia' of Irish musicians and groups Music of Ireland, Traditional Music Sessions (Wikipedia links) History of Irish Dancing
Humour	Traditional instrument jokes Pat O'Reilly's 2000 years of Irish Music

7:30-9:30 PM, weekly, Masonic Lodge. Beginner supportive. Sheet music abounds. Fee $1 to $2 to cover hall expenses, (Carp location).

N/A

Please refer to the Irish Music Ottawa Blog posting.

8PM, Town of Osgoode (at the junction of River Road and Roger Stevens Drive), open Irish/Celtic session; first Wednesday of every month. Friendly, relaxed session. Generally no sheet music. Free and guests are welcome. Contact John Henderson at 613-489-0773, (Ottawa South location).

8-10 PM, most weeks, 151 Bridge St., Carleton Place. Contact David Hauraney 613-257-5594 (Carleton Place location).

Everyone gets a chance to start tunes at their own speed. For location, contact Rob: froom \atsign/ csv \dot/ ca. Beginners welcome. No sheet music at this session. It is held in Hintonburg, Ottawa, starting at 7 pm and going until we stop. Tune index here. Free.

7:30 PM, weekly, fee $2. Sheet music abounds, beginners welcome (Glebe location).

This space made with 100% filler. Here is a link to an interesting article entitled "How to Start and Run an Irish Slow Session (session dynamics)" by Chris Smith. Very good observations are made, and they apply not just to slow sessions. See also The 10 Commandments of Jamming.

See below for weekend events such as: Comhaltas ceili's, Old Sod Folk Society Contra Dancing, Irish stage plays, Concerts, etc.

2-5 PM, first and third Sundays of every month, Royal Oak Pub 318 Bank St. at MacLaren. Primarily Cape Breton fiddle music (very few Irish tunes). Check the session site for set lists and the dots.

Everyone gets a chance to start tunes at their own speed. For location, contact Rob: froom \atsign/ csv \dot/ ca. Beginners welcome. No sheet music at this session. It is held in Hintonburg, Ottawa, starting at 7 pm and going until we stop.
Tune index here. Free.