Activities
Research shows that most effective way to learn traditional music in the long-term is to listen, connect, and play music with other musicians of varying ages and skill levels. Learners have to get out and play in the ‘real music world’ in addition to thier workshops, lessons, and classes. For this reason, we organise many informal and social experiences, including our own festival, sessions, ensembles, TradCamp and cultural exchanges. Active performance is a feature in all our school and Club Ceoil programmes, as we host numerous concerts, solo recitals, and recording projects each year. Social inclusion is one of our guiding principles, so we also run workshops to help Autistic people better connect to the traditional music community.
TradCamp
We have hosted TradCamp in the northside of Cork City since 2014, and each year we have added more activities and participants. Taking place early July, TradCamp caters to children of all abilities ages 6-17. We spend 4 days singing, dancing, and playing tunes together, culminating in a gala concert on the final day. TradCamp is a wonderful opportunity for all our Club Ceoil and students throughout the northside to get together during the summer. Thanks to Music Generation, the camp is open to young traditional musicians throughout Cork City.
Traditional music sessions
We host traditional music sessions in many locations like out in Club Ceoil Blarney and in the Kabin Studio. All our circles are open to musicians of all abilities, and led by one of our fabulous music tutors. Stop on by for some ceol, caint agus craic! Keep an eye out on our social media, as we regularly post updates on the upcoming dates, times and locations of our session circles. We often host pop-up sessions for events like Cruinniú na nÓg and Culture Night.
TradOrchestra & ensembles
Creative Tradition has spearheaded several large-scale performances over the years, like our TradOrchestra collaboration with Music Generation Carlow in 2016. One of the priorities in our 5-year plan is to host a new, large traditional music ensemble which would be open to any young musician in Cork City. Keep in touch on social media for any updates.
We also host several grúpaí cheoil and traditional singing groups in our school and Club Ceoil programmes. We believe that active music-making alongside one’s own peers is a hugely inspirational and effective way to learn traditional music, especially throughout the teenage years. We create such platforms to encourage our young players to continue their musical development.
Autism & Special Needs
We have taught Autistic children in our music classes since the establishment of Creative Tradition in 2013. In the beginning stages, we supported Autistic children to learn traditional music in mainstream classrooms. This initial experience prompted us contemplate how to make Irish traditional music a more inclusive artform. It also highlighted the importance of meeting learners where they are at. Over the years, we have further developed ways to teach traditional music to children with Autism and other special needs (particularly our work with South Lee Educate Together, St Mary’s on the Hill and Scoil Íosagáín).
In 2020, we started a new project to develop our programme to cater to our neurodivergent learners. As part of a special Arts Council and Music Generation Cork City action research project, we developed classes for Autistic classes and documented outcomes for the participants. The project truly shifted the way we approach teaching traditional music in schools and in the community. We now carve more space and time to better support learners with Autism, and work more closely with families, teachers, and SNAs to identify approaches to better nurture and celebrate our budding musicians. The full research report can be found online at Music Generation Cork City.
Mentorship & Training
Creative Traditional provides several training opportunities for teachers and musicians who are interested in developing their abilities to pass on Irish traditional music. We currently mentor young traditional musicians (age 18-23) who are interested in getting involved with community music and music education as part of the Musical Neighbourhoods programme. We also frequently facilitate CPD workshops in collaboration with schools, Creative Ireland, and Music Generation. We have also worked directly in primary schools to empower staff to teach tin whistle and traditional music to their own students.
Cultural Exchanges & Workshops
Over the years, Creative Tradition has participated in several cultural exchanges with other musical groups and visitors to Cork Some of our best memories have been collaborations with other traditional musicians, like when folk musicians from Columbia met with Club Ceoil Knocknaheeny in 2017. We would love to host more cultural exchanges or workshops in the future. One of our favourite things is to share traditional music, dance and song while learning about other musical cultures. The mixing and diversity of practice is inspiring for all.