Seán Heely and Owen Kennedy

On May 21st at 3 pm, champion fiddlers Seán Heely and Owen Kennedy will play a special afternoon of Celtic Fiddle & Song at the Maine Irish Heritage Center in Portland, featuring beautiful bouzouki & fiddle duets, haunting slow airs, lively Gaelic songs, mighty pipe marches, and wild twin fiddling.  They will also include a few tunes from Owen’s debut album, “Oh When: Now” which was released in April 2023.  CDs from both performers will be available to purchase.

Champion Celtic fiddler and singer Seán Heely is rapidly emerging as one of his generation’s most creatively versatile and captivating young artists. Fiddle legend Liz Carroll calls Seán “One powerhouse of a fiddler.” He is a U.S National Scottish Fiddle Champion and an award-winning Irish Fiddler and folksinger specializing in Scottish Gaelic. Seán holds a degree from the University of South Carolina in Classical Violin Performance and was a 2019 Artist in Residence at Strathmore Music Center in Maryland. Based in Washington D.C, Seán performs locally and abroad with the Seán Heely Celtic Trio and The Glencoe Lads. He also frequently travels abroad as a solo artist and maintains a private teaching studio in Falls Church, VA.

Owen Kennedy is a seventeen-year-old fiddler from Maine whose love of traditional music and enthusiasm for performing has charmed audiences from San Diego to the Shetland Islands and all over New England. Owen has been playing the violin for thirteen years and performs solo and with the Vermont-based Young Tradition Touring Group, the Pineland Fiddlers, and the Maine Folque Co-op. In addition to winning the Junior US National Scottish Championship and the New England Open Scottish Fiddle Competition, Owen was awarded the Young Stars of Maine “Glenn Jenks Future in Music” Prize from Bay Chamber Music School in 2019 and was selected for “Best of All Things Irish” from the Maine Irish Heritage Center in 2021.  

For more information about this duo, go to www.fiddlerokennedy.com/owen-sean.

Seán Heely and Owen Kennedy met at the 2019 Acadia Traditional School of Music & Arts in Bar Harbor, Maine.  Inspired by Seán’s workshops and performances at Acadia Trad and Fiddle Hell, Owen was motivated to dive into the Scottish fiddling tradition.  With Seán’s mentorship, Owen competed and won the 2021 Junior US National Scottish Fiddle Championship and the 2022 New England Regional Open Scottish Fiddle Competition.  Since then, Owen & Seán have been performing in venues and events across Maine.  Here is more on this YouTube playlist!

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