A piper's journey: From Broadway and the Caribbean to the Comeragh Mountains
David Power and John Walsh. Picture: Joe Chapman
An uilleann piper, a baroque violinist and a flamenco guitarist walk into a bar. It sounds an unlikely alliance but when David Power and Marja Gaynor heard John Walsh play at Kaleidoscope, the monthly classical music salon in Dublin, they were impressed by the Kildare guitarist’s virtuosity and musicianship.
An overture was made, and a plan was hatched to form a trio to develop arrangements of music drawn from their diverse traditions. Now two years on, the ensemble is ready to take to the stage at the Triskel Arts Centre in Cork to reveal a unique melding of musical styles to a live audience.
Piper David Power recalls the heady atmosphere of his last pre-pandemic live gig at a basement bar in Portabello when he played as a duo with Gaynor, a Finnish native long settled in Cork. Both are part of a larger collective, Camerata Kilkenny, which is exploring links between Irish and Baroque music since 2016.
“The place was packed," says Power. "It had an underground vibe. People were horsing back pints. It felt like an English folk club in the ‘70s and we just hit the right velocity. People went nuts.”
Days later, Taoiseach Varadkar made his announcement, and all live music was off the agenda, but the seeds of a new collaboration was sewn, and the trio began developing a programme.
I meet Power at the showrooms in his home at Coolnasmear high up in the Comeraghs in the lee of his childhood home. It’s an idyllic setting between the mountains and the sea and the sunshine bounces off the varnish of the scores of fine violins adorning the walls. We look out on a set of newly planted trees that he hopes in time will yield a truffle harvest.
Power talks about some of the fascinating details of a career trajectory in which serendipity plays a large part. Introduced to the pipes as a schoolboy as part of an initiative by Aloys Fleishmann to develop Irish instruments in rural schools, Power kept his piping as a hobby while he embarked on a career in industry.
With a young family, he moved to America in 2003 as a trailing spouse where an unusual opportunity arose that propelled the Dungarvan man onto a Broadway stage alongside Gabriel Byrne. “A Eugene O Neill play (Touch of a Poet) was planned, and they were looking for a bagpiper. Byrne straightened them out and said, 'No, it’s an uilleann piper you want'.”
Power auditioned and got the part, spending five months commuting by ferry from his home in New Jersey to Broadway. Power fondly reminisces on the details of the opening scene when dressed as a vagabond piper he sat centre stage on a throne playing The Bonny Bunch of Roses. The scene was described by no less than the revered journalist Ben Bradlee of the Washington Post as ‘so strong that the play took 30 minutes to come up to the level of the opening’. Power performed at every show except for the final week when he was booked to play on a Caribbean cruise with Liam Clancy which he describes as being ‘a blast’.”
Another significant shift from piping as an expensive hobby to a professional activity happened during Power’s years in America. “I recorded my first album in the states. I got a new set of pipes from a French man living in Kenmare. When I got them working the way I wanted, I realised that this was special. The sound can be fleeting, and I needed to get this in the can. Claddagh Records published it and I got what was probably the last big record deal from Claddagh for that album. It paid for the pipes and that doesn’t happen anymore.”
When his wife lost her job with Waterford Crystal in the US, the family returned home. Power started working as a primary school teacher and developing a violin dealership while continuing to perform. Like many musicians, he joined the flood of musicians creating online content.
“All those online gigs gave the opportunity to practice, rehearse and develop a show that we haven’t yet put in front of a live audience. This gig at the Triskel will be our first chance to showcase two years of development of this act with all its various influences. We’ll be nervous but playing to a live audience versus to a camera and lights - there is no comparison.
- David Power performs with Marja Gaynor and John Walsh as part of the Music Network Resonate Music Residency at the Triskel Arts Centre, Cork, on Saturday, March 26. www.musicnetwork.ie
The Power of the Dog by Don Winslow – it chimes very well with the Netflix series Narcos which I also thoroughly enjoyed.
It’s a while ago, but the 1969 film Midnight Cowboy with Jon Voigt and Dustin Hoffmann and the epic song track ‘Everybody’s Talkin’ by Harry Nilsson. A sensitive piece of cinema showing human ugliness and beauty in equal measure.
French lute /theorbo player Thomas Dunford at the wonderful series ‘Music in Kilkenny’ - it was spectacular!
There are so many, but my son reminded me of the 1989 Chaka Khan song ‘Ain’t Nobody’ featuring Rufus - fabulous!
Well there was ‘Eye of the Tiger’ by the band Survivor at the cinema watching Rocky 4, and when Rocky beat the Russian Ivor Drago I got wicked excited!
Tony MacMahon and Noel Hill at our little community hall in Coolnasmear – gods at the mountain!
Like most people, I love good acting, good character development, good plots, cinematography, and a good soundtrack is a must. Lately I’ve been watching series that don’t challenge too much for a bit of escapism. Real life is stranger than fiction right now...
Lyric FM for music, I never really got hooked on podcasts, if I’m on a long journey in the car I tend to listen to music that I’m working on for a performance. At the moment, it’s a new Kevin Volans piece called ‘Jubal’s Air’ written for uilleann pipes and two string quartets, the premiere of which will be performed at St Mary’s Collegiate Church in Youghal on the 24th of September with the ConTempo Quartet and the Ficino Quartet. I listen to a MIDI version of the music to learn it, because I don’t usually sight-read, and certainly not well enough to play this beautiful but challenging piece.
Freddie Mercury, David Bowie and Seamus Ennis – can you imagine??
The Metropolitan Museum Gala was going on in New York, all the streets were closed to traffic, but I was playing at the American Irish Historical Society across the street. As I walked down the empty street, I came face to face with Debbie Harry (my first crush) out walking her dog. I couldn’t believe it!
As an observer – the underground music scene in London and Berlin in the 1980s. As a participant, the folk music scene in London in the 1960s.
My wife and I decided to plant 200 truffle trees in the field in front of our house, about seven or eight years ago now. Tending to them has been lovely, particularly over lockdown, and it feels very good to see them coming to maturity now.
