Basque pushes all the right buttons

The fifth Ballincollig Winter Music Festival features familiar Irish acts such as Mick Flannery, Hermitage Green, Karan Casey and Comhaltas Ceolteoirí Éireann, and an international musician, Kepa Junkera. Junkera remains open to other influences, but is nourished by his Basque culture.

A native of Bilbao, Junkera is a master exponent of the trikitixa, the Basque style of diatonic accordion. Of the differences between conventional accordions and the trikitixa, Junkera says “trikitixa style is very percussive, highly rhythmic.”

Junkera learned trikitixa informally at an early age. “I have fond memories of those early years when I learned to play. I was a self-taught musician and it’s a big honour for me to have achieved what I have. I could never have imagined it.”