CALLING ALL TRAD and music lovers – TG4’s Traditional Irish Music Awards, Gradam Ceoil TG4, is taking place tomorrow night Sunday 23rd April at 9.30pm. The show will feature a world-class lineup of traditional Irish music performers in what is described as ‘the Oscars of traditional music’. 

The concert and awards show will take place at the University Concert Hall in Limerick, and broadcast live on TG4. The show, which promises to be an amazing showcase of traditional music, is also available worldwide on the TG4 Player for Irish traditional music fans across the globe. 

Those who will be awarded and recognised for their contribution to traditional music are:

Gradam Ceoil TG4 / Musician Award – Mick O’Brien 

Gradam Saoil/ Lifetime Achievement Award – Fintan Vallely

Amhránaí / Singer Award – Síle Denvir 

Ceoltóir Óg/ Young Musician – Méabh Smyth

Cumadóir / Composer – Maurice Lennon

Grúpa Ceoil / Music Group - Mick, Louise, and Michelle Mulcahy

Gradam Comaoine / Outstanding Contribution – Frank McArdle

Mick O’Brien will be named Musician 2023, which recognises his extensive career in traditional music, which began with him learning the pipes at age nine from Leo Rowsome, Seán Seery, and Mick Touhey at the Thomas Street Pipers’ Club. O’Brien went on to conduct masterclasses on the pipes across Ireland, Europe, and the US, and performed regularly as a solo artist and with other musicians, including the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, and also with Norwegian groups Vamp, Hanne Krogh, and Secret Garden. He also embarked on a successful recording artist career, performing on songs for the likes of The Dubliners, Altan, and Charlie Lennon.

Mick O'Brien Maurice Gunning Maurice Gunning

This year’s Lifetime Achievement award goes to Fintan Vallely. Vallely is a flute player, author, songwriter, and educator, born in Armagh in 1949. He began playing music as a teenager, learning the whistle, flute, and uilleann pipes. He has also recorded several albums, including Fintan Vallely – Traditional Irish Flute Music (1979), The Starry Lane to Monaghan (1992), and Merrijig Creek (2021), in addition to touring across Ireland, in Europe, North America, Asia, and Australia. 

The recipient of this year’s Young Musician award is Méabh Smyth, who hails from Armagh. Since the age of seven, Smyth has been playing traditional music, specialising in the fiddle. Formerly a student of the Armagh Pipers Club, her playing style is shaped by the rhythmic style of fiddle from the regions of South Ulster and Donegal. She was announced as one of six recipients of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland’s Young Musicians’ Platform Award for 2023.

Méabh Smyth Maurice Gunning Maurice Gunning

The winner of this year’s An Gradam Comaoine / The Outstanding Contribution Award was selected by a combination of public nomination and panel selection. After a call-out for nominees TG4 received hundreds of submissions from all over the world for this year’s award. 

Glasgow performers and friends are set to arrive into Limerick in their masses, as one of their own has been selected as Gradam Comaoine TG4 2023. Frank McArdle is a musician, educator, and founder of the St Roch’s Céilí Band in Glasgow. Growing up in Ayrshire, he moved to Glasgow and worked as a teacher in St Roch’s Secondary School where he founded a céilí band for students – the St Roch’s Ceilí Band – in 1978. Frank’s Irish connection comes through his grandparents who hailed from Antrim, Sligo, and Monaghan, and the St Roch’s Céilí Band is the perfect way to keep those connections alive. 

Mulcahy family Maurice Gunning Maurice Gunning

The Gradam Ceoil recipients are presented with a specially commissioned piece by leading sculptor John Coll as well as a small stipend. 

All 2023 Gradam recipients, who represent the very pinnacle of traditional music and song, will be joined on the night by special guests, including Colm Mac an Iomaire, Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, Liam Ó Maonlaí, Róisín Chambers, Breda Smyth, Breda Harper, and many more. 

Hosted by TG4 presenter Páidí Ó Lionaird, the unmissable show promises to be a breathtaking celebration of traditional music.

The TG4 Gradam Ceoil Awards 2023 will be broadcast live on TG4 at 9.30pm on Sunday 23rd April. 

For more information, visit www.gradam.ie or connect with Gradam Ceoil on Facebook and Twitter @TradTG4 using the hashtag, #Gradam.