Honoree Biographies from 2016 Hall of Fame Program
Cuisle Mo Chroí
The trio Cuisle Mo Chroí, consisting of Patricia Carey, Mary Lester and Cathy McGrath, has a long history of music and friendship. The name of the trio is taken from and old Irish air that translates as “Pulse of My Heart.” Cuisle is also an Irish word used to describe the flow of a river, images of poetry, and breath coursing through the flute, which is played by all three women. In addition to the flute, the group’s instrumentation includes Celtic wire-strung harp, tin whistles, bodhrán and guitars. They perform jigs, reels, planxties, hornpipes, polkas and slow airs as well as hauntingly touching laments and lively ballads that are the heart of Irish music.
The three friends first played together in 1989, at the suggestion of ethnomusicologist Mick Maloney, when they opened for Cherish the Ladies in Rochester. It was then that
they decided to establish a local all women group that could combine their love of Irish music with their natural affinity for vocal harmonies.
Since then, they have played concerts and given workshops at many events, libraries, schools, colleges, churches and concert series. Cuisle Mo Chroí performed 8 consecutive times at the Rochester Irish Festival (1995-2002) and again in 2011 with CCE. They have played several times at Golden Link Folk Singing Society’s concerts and Turtle Hill Festival. They have also played for Rochester’s Irish Cultural Institute, Rochester AOH,the Irish Children’s Fund and 1993 CCE Convention in Syracuse with John Walker. In 2013 they performed at St. John Fisher College for A Rochester Irish Gathering with a presentation titled “Songs That Recall the Great Hunger.”
Cuisle Mo Chroí presents an annual Christmas concert at Tunes By The Tracks in Clifton Springs and will return once again for the LeRoy Methodist Church annual St. Patrick’s Day Concert. Other appearances include Apple Umpkin Fesitval, Lilac Festival, Strong Museum, and Valentown Museum. These performances have sometimes been augmented by the talents of Lynn Pilaroscia, Ted McGraw, Michael Roddy, John Walker and Martin O’Keefe.
In 2009 Cuisle Mo Chroí released a Christmas CD called WinterRoot with aid of Jerry Flanagan which included performances by many friends in the Irish music community. Pat Carey’s CD Key to the Past features Cuisle Mo Chroí on two cuts as well as four of Pat’s own compositions. Mary has released 3 CD’s of her music, The Enchanted Door,Of Castles and Kings, and Playing the Gamut. In addition, Mary Lester produced MartinO’Keefe’s acclaimed 2002 CD Dawn in the Hills of Ireland with the help of BrianClancy and Mike Ryan. It takes many friends to make music.
Cuisle Mo Chroí wishes to express our thanks to our friends and family who havesupported our music. Special gratitude goes to Brian Clancy and Gerry Hallinan for instruction in Irish Language, to Bob Kelley for artistic guidance, and to Jo Carroll for continued friendship and support of the local Irish community. We are honored and humbled by the Tom Finucane Branch of CCE for our nomination to the NE Regional Hall of Fame in 2016.
Pat Carey
Pat is a native of Rochester. She is a founding member of the Tom Finucane Branch of, Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann and served as its treasurer (cisteoir) for its first 12 years. Pat also served for two years as secretary (runaí) of the Northeast US Regional Board of CCE. For over thirty years Pat has performed Irish and American folk music at museums, libraries, schools, historical societies and other venues in the Rochester area, both as a solo and in groups, including the trio Cuisle Mo Chroí with fellow honorees and good friends Mary Lester and Cathy McGrath. Pat has also examined the history of the Irish in Rochester, and has conducted extensive research on longtime Rochester resident Kate Coll de Valera Wheelwright, mother of Eamonn de Valera.
Pat is honored by this recognition, and she wishes to thank the Tom Finucane Branch and the Northeast Region of CCE for their support.
Mary Lester
My Aunt Harriet Farrell would sing the "Last Rose of Summer", accompanied by a firmly played piano. She was in her 90's, voice loud and less than beautiful. She was proud of her Irish name, bemoaned the loss of the "O", had a yellowed map of Ireland on which she'd point out the home County of Cavan.
Many chapters of my life later, in 1985 or so, I discovered the full force and magic of Irish music at The Friendship Tavern. I walked into the first room, a bar, and wondered if I'd the wrong address or time - for I saw no instrument, heard none. Then, through a further door, to another dimension, the Session. Here was my true introduction, and Ted McGraw was the kindness that invited my harp and me into the circle.
The circle has become an ever widening spiral upwards, of fine, beloved friends intertwined by the draoícht of music. And here I am, with 2 of those dear friends, known for 25 years and more, honored to be part of them, of Cuisle Mo Chroí.
Cathy McGrath
From childhood, Cathy has been in love with Ireland and its culture. She credits this love to her mother and to her great aunt Kitty Madden, who lived with the family and shared her stories. Falling in love with Irish and folk music, Cathy learned flute and guitar while young. She first heard live traditional Irish music in the late 1960’s at Rochester’s Harps Club, then at sessions at The Friendship Tavern led by local masters like the O’Keefes, Walkers, Murphy, and McGraw and soon began playing at sessions and contra dances.
As a member of several bands or as a solo, Cathy continued to play Irish music around the area and at many Irish establishments in Rochester. During the 1980’s and ‘90s, she carried her love of Irish music to hospitals, group homes and city community centers as an artist for Arts Reach, Inc, serving the disadvantaged among us. The formation of the trio Cuisle Mo Chroí in 1989 allowed for many more opportunities. The friendships made while sharing Irish music are treasured forever.
In 1986, Cathy was at the table when the Rochester branch of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann was formed and has been playing for the club’s dances ever since with the Tom Finucane Ceili Band. As a member in the Tom Finucane Branch, Cathy has organized CCE performances for many years at events such as the Rochester Irish Festival, the annual Irish Cultural Day at Nazareth College, Genesee Country Village Fiddlers’ Fair, other festivals, libraries and schools. Cathy wishes to thank the generous and selfless members who have contributed to these performances.
Cathy also thanks the Tom Finucane Branch of CCE for the honor of this nomination to the Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann US Northeast Regional Hall of Fame.
Lynn Pilaroscia
Lynn Pilaroscia is a founding member of the Tom Finucane Branch and has contributed his fiddle to hundreds of sessions as well as playing in the almost every ceili. He has been our Branch Treasurer for the past three years.
Lynn has had an interest in folk/traditional music since boyhood, first hearing it played on the harmonica by a WWI veteran, Frank Wahl, who owned a small General Store at the corner in West Penfield . . . The Irish music interest came about when daughter Marla began Irish dancing lesions at age 6, practicing to the records of Toronto’s Larry McKee “Irish Dance Music for the Sets in Strict Tempo.”
He has enjoyed the music and the people who play and listen for a long time.
Jim Kimball
I have taught classes in music history, world music and folk music at SUNY Geneseo since 1976. I grew up in a household with lots of music, mostly of the classical variety, but with a strong appreciation for folk tradition and a father who's tenor voice was described as "Irish" and who was continuing a legacy of O'Brien ancestors who had come from Dublin and Longford in the mid 19th century. I remember playing a few Irish, Scottish and old English tunes first out of song and tune collections on the piano. In college, first at Cornell and then in the Ethnomusicolgy program at Wesleyan University I fell in first with the popular folk movement and then to serious study of the methods of Ethnomusicology. I began to play banjo, guitar, an old leaky button accordion and started playing fiddle tunes on my mother's violin. I also got to see live the Clancy Brothers and the Chieftains. In 1975-76 I was employed by the Smithsonian Institution to put together Polish programming for an extended version of their annual FolkLife Festival; Mick Maloney did the Irish programming and clearly brought home the strong presence of Irish traditional music in America. I came to my first Rochester session in the fall of 1976 - the old session at the Friendship Tavern - and discovered right here so much of the richness that Mick had talked about. The Ethnomusicologist in me encouraged recording or videoing some of the sessions and transcribing many of the local tunes for my college string band. We were playing a variety of traditions, square dance, western swing, old-time New York, etc.; but Rochester Irish quickly became part of our repertoire and a part, some hundreds of tunes later, which has stuck with many of my string band graduates over the years. We held our first Pre-St. Patrick's Day concert in 1979 and continue to the present. My thanks to all the fine musicians, old and not-so-old, who have kept these music and dance traditions as such a strong part of the Rochester Irish scene and to all my students who have carried these traditions with them.
*Jim Kimball is a Professor of Music at the State University College at Geneseo and has been teaching and playing Irish Music for over 45 years He has made significant impact in the preservation of Traditional Irish Music in the Rochester region.
Arlene Miller
Proud to say I was the first dance leader when the Tom Finucane branch was formed; other leaders since then but currently I have that position again.
I was a member of the Hibernian Céilí dance group formed by Pat Martin and we all competed for many years in Syracuse, Buffalo and of course Rochester. At a later date Pat taught us set dancing that he learned in Ireland. Buffalo dancers taught us more and we then became a set dance group since it's easier on older feet. I was one of the leaders of that group and now lead our group which is called the Rochester Irish Set Dancers.
Happily I attended several CCE conventions for dance workshops and participated in East Durham's Irish Arts Week for 12 years. Also attended workshops at the Willie Clancy week in Ireland.
My love of Irish traditional music, song, dance and language is due to CCE. Comhaltas is certainly inspirational in bringing fun and knowledge to our daily lives. The only sore point for me is that I cannot sing. Thank you CCE.
"Thank you the McGinnity Family for their support of our group and the use of their wonderful dance floor for our Wednesday nights and ceilis.
Harold Murphy
Harold Murphy has danced with the Tom Finucane Branch since the group was founded and has made almost every Céilí since the beginning. Harold's brother, Frank Murphy, is also a member of our Hall of Fame.
Cuisle Mo Chroí
The trio Cuisle Mo Chroí, consisting of Patricia Carey, Mary Lester and Cathy McGrath, has a long history of music and friendship. The name of the trio is taken from and old Irish air that translates as “Pulse of My Heart.” Cuisle is also an Irish word used to describe the flow of a river, images of poetry, and breath coursing through the flute, which is played by all three women. In addition to the flute, the group’s instrumentation includes Celtic wire-strung harp, tin whistles, bodhrán and guitars. They perform jigs, reels, planxties, hornpipes, polkas and slow airs as well as hauntingly touching laments and lively ballads that are the heart of Irish music.
The three friends first played together in 1989, at the suggestion of ethnomusicologist Mick Maloney, when they opened for Cherish the Ladies in Rochester. It was then that
they decided to establish a local all women group that could combine their love of Irish music with their natural affinity for vocal harmonies.
Since then, they have played concerts and given workshops at many events, libraries, schools, colleges, churches and concert series. Cuisle Mo Chroí performed 8 consecutive times at the Rochester Irish Festival (1995-2002) and again in 2011 with CCE. They have played several times at Golden Link Folk Singing Society’s concerts and Turtle Hill Festival. They have also played for Rochester’s Irish Cultural Institute, Rochester AOH,the Irish Children’s Fund and 1993 CCE Convention in Syracuse with John Walker. In 2013 they performed at St. John Fisher College for A Rochester Irish Gathering with a presentation titled “Songs That Recall the Great Hunger.”
Cuisle Mo Chroí presents an annual Christmas concert at Tunes By The Tracks in Clifton Springs and will return once again for the LeRoy Methodist Church annual St. Patrick’s Day Concert. Other appearances include Apple Umpkin Fesitval, Lilac Festival, Strong Museum, and Valentown Museum. These performances have sometimes been augmented by the talents of Lynn Pilaroscia, Ted McGraw, Michael Roddy, John Walker and Martin O’Keefe.
In 2009 Cuisle Mo Chroí released a Christmas CD called WinterRoot with aid of Jerry Flanagan which included performances by many friends in the Irish music community. Pat Carey’s CD Key to the Past features Cuisle Mo Chroí on two cuts as well as four of Pat’s own compositions. Mary has released 3 CD’s of her music, The Enchanted Door,Of Castles and Kings, and Playing the Gamut. In addition, Mary Lester produced MartinO’Keefe’s acclaimed 2002 CD Dawn in the Hills of Ireland with the help of BrianClancy and Mike Ryan. It takes many friends to make music.
Cuisle Mo Chroí wishes to express our thanks to our friends and family who havesupported our music. Special gratitude goes to Brian Clancy and Gerry Hallinan for instruction in Irish Language, to Bob Kelley for artistic guidance, and to Jo Carroll for continued friendship and support of the local Irish community. We are honored and humbled by the Tom Finucane Branch of CCE for our nomination to the NE Regional Hall of Fame in 2016.
Pat Carey
Pat is a native of Rochester. She is a founding member of the Tom Finucane Branch of, Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann and served as its treasurer (cisteoir) for its first 12 years. Pat also served for two years as secretary (runaí) of the Northeast US Regional Board of CCE. For over thirty years Pat has performed Irish and American folk music at museums, libraries, schools, historical societies and other venues in the Rochester area, both as a solo and in groups, including the trio Cuisle Mo Chroí with fellow honorees and good friends Mary Lester and Cathy McGrath. Pat has also examined the history of the Irish in Rochester, and has conducted extensive research on longtime Rochester resident Kate Coll de Valera Wheelwright, mother of Eamonn de Valera.
Pat is honored by this recognition, and she wishes to thank the Tom Finucane Branch and the Northeast Region of CCE for their support.
Mary Lester
My Aunt Harriet Farrell would sing the "Last Rose of Summer", accompanied by a firmly played piano. She was in her 90's, voice loud and less than beautiful. She was proud of her Irish name, bemoaned the loss of the "O", had a yellowed map of Ireland on which she'd point out the home County of Cavan.
Many chapters of my life later, in 1985 or so, I discovered the full force and magic of Irish music at The Friendship Tavern. I walked into the first room, a bar, and wondered if I'd the wrong address or time - for I saw no instrument, heard none. Then, through a further door, to another dimension, the Session. Here was my true introduction, and Ted McGraw was the kindness that invited my harp and me into the circle.
The circle has become an ever widening spiral upwards, of fine, beloved friends intertwined by the draoícht of music. And here I am, with 2 of those dear friends, known for 25 years and more, honored to be part of them, of Cuisle Mo Chroí.
Cathy McGrath
From childhood, Cathy has been in love with Ireland and its culture. She credits this love to her mother and to her great aunt Kitty Madden, who lived with the family and shared her stories. Falling in love with Irish and folk music, Cathy learned flute and guitar while young. She first heard live traditional Irish music in the late 1960’s at Rochester’s Harps Club, then at sessions at The Friendship Tavern led by local masters like the O’Keefes, Walkers, Murphy, and McGraw and soon began playing at sessions and contra dances.
As a member of several bands or as a solo, Cathy continued to play Irish music around the area and at many Irish establishments in Rochester. During the 1980’s and ‘90s, she carried her love of Irish music to hospitals, group homes and city community centers as an artist for Arts Reach, Inc, serving the disadvantaged among us. The formation of the trio Cuisle Mo Chroí in 1989 allowed for many more opportunities. The friendships made while sharing Irish music are treasured forever.
In 1986, Cathy was at the table when the Rochester branch of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann was formed and has been playing for the club’s dances ever since with the Tom Finucane Ceili Band. As a member in the Tom Finucane Branch, Cathy has organized CCE performances for many years at events such as the Rochester Irish Festival, the annual Irish Cultural Day at Nazareth College, Genesee Country Village Fiddlers’ Fair, other festivals, libraries and schools. Cathy wishes to thank the generous and selfless members who have contributed to these performances.
Cathy also thanks the Tom Finucane Branch of CCE for the honor of this nomination to the Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann US Northeast Regional Hall of Fame.
Lynn Pilaroscia
Lynn Pilaroscia is a founding member of the Tom Finucane Branch and has contributed his fiddle to hundreds of sessions as well as playing in the almost every ceili. He has been our Branch Treasurer for the past three years.
Lynn has had an interest in folk/traditional music since boyhood, first hearing it played on the harmonica by a WWI veteran, Frank Wahl, who owned a small General Store at the corner in West Penfield . . . The Irish music interest came about when daughter Marla began Irish dancing lesions at age 6, practicing to the records of Toronto’s Larry McKee “Irish Dance Music for the Sets in Strict Tempo.”
He has enjoyed the music and the people who play and listen for a long time.
Jim Kimball
I have taught classes in music history, world music and folk music at SUNY Geneseo since 1976. I grew up in a household with lots of music, mostly of the classical variety, but with a strong appreciation for folk tradition and a father who's tenor voice was described as "Irish" and who was continuing a legacy of O'Brien ancestors who had come from Dublin and Longford in the mid 19th century. I remember playing a few Irish, Scottish and old English tunes first out of song and tune collections on the piano. In college, first at Cornell and then in the Ethnomusicolgy program at Wesleyan University I fell in first with the popular folk movement and then to serious study of the methods of Ethnomusicology. I began to play banjo, guitar, an old leaky button accordion and started playing fiddle tunes on my mother's violin. I also got to see live the Clancy Brothers and the Chieftains. In 1975-76 I was employed by the Smithsonian Institution to put together Polish programming for an extended version of their annual FolkLife Festival; Mick Maloney did the Irish programming and clearly brought home the strong presence of Irish traditional music in America. I came to my first Rochester session in the fall of 1976 - the old session at the Friendship Tavern - and discovered right here so much of the richness that Mick had talked about. The Ethnomusicologist in me encouraged recording or videoing some of the sessions and transcribing many of the local tunes for my college string band. We were playing a variety of traditions, square dance, western swing, old-time New York, etc.; but Rochester Irish quickly became part of our repertoire and a part, some hundreds of tunes later, which has stuck with many of my string band graduates over the years. We held our first Pre-St. Patrick's Day concert in 1979 and continue to the present. My thanks to all the fine musicians, old and not-so-old, who have kept these music and dance traditions as such a strong part of the Rochester Irish scene and to all my students who have carried these traditions with them.
*Jim Kimball is a Professor of Music at the State University College at Geneseo and has been teaching and playing Irish Music for over 45 years He has made significant impact in the preservation of Traditional Irish Music in the Rochester region.
Arlene Miller
Proud to say I was the first dance leader when the Tom Finucane branch was formed; other leaders since then but currently I have that position again.
I was a member of the Hibernian Céilí dance group formed by Pat Martin and we all competed for many years in Syracuse, Buffalo and of course Rochester. At a later date Pat taught us set dancing that he learned in Ireland. Buffalo dancers taught us more and we then became a set dance group since it's easier on older feet. I was one of the leaders of that group and now lead our group which is called the Rochester Irish Set Dancers.
Happily I attended several CCE conventions for dance workshops and participated in East Durham's Irish Arts Week for 12 years. Also attended workshops at the Willie Clancy week in Ireland.
My love of Irish traditional music, song, dance and language is due to CCE. Comhaltas is certainly inspirational in bringing fun and knowledge to our daily lives. The only sore point for me is that I cannot sing. Thank you CCE.
"Thank you the McGinnity Family for their support of our group and the use of their wonderful dance floor for our Wednesday nights and ceilis.
Harold Murphy
Harold Murphy has danced with the Tom Finucane Branch since the group was founded and has made almost every Céilí since the beginning. Harold's brother, Frank Murphy, is also a member of our Hall of Fame.
