Mayock joins women pipers for musical first

NOTES OF MAYO Multiinstrumentalist Emer Mayock joins fellow female uillean pipers on ‘MnΡ na bPíob Uilleann: Volume 1’.


Ciara Moynihan

Traditional musician Emer Mayock from Ross West, Castlebar, has contributed recordings to the first-ever volume of female uilleann pipers. Na Píobairí Uilleann, the leading uilleann pipes organisation in Ireland, is launching the highly anticipated album – ‘MnΡ na bPíob Uilleann: Volume 1’ – on Wednesday, April 19, in the Mansion House, Dublin.
This unique recording is the culmination of from many years of actively promoting and encouraging women and girls to play the pipes. Music has always run deep in the Mayock family, however, and Emer began to play traditional music during her childhood on a range of instruments including the flute, low whistles, fiddle and uilleann pipes.
For her part on the new CD, Mayock has focused on the music of her native Co Mayo for this recording, including performances of music from a manuscript collection compiled near Crossmolina by farmer and fiddle player Philip Carolan (c.1839-1910), a reel associated with Piper Caulfield of Liscat, Aghamore, and tunes sources from Mayo fiddle-player Delia Henry of Killaturley, Swinford.
Mayock is the founder and artistic director of Music of Mayo, which explores the rich traditional musical heritage of the county, past and present and creates a resource in which the music and song of Mayo can be further researched, shared and celebrated.
She has also cast her net beyond the county’s borders. In 2014, she  received a prestigious TG4 Gradam Comharcheoil award to celebrate her collaboration with  Mick O’Brien (uilleann pipes) and Aoife Ní Bhriain (fiddle), which led to the recording of the CD ‘Tunes from the Goodman Manuscripts’ – an exploration of the music collected by Canon James Goodman in his native Munster in the 1860s.
For more on Music of Mayo, see www.musicofmayo.ie. ‘MnΡ na bPíob Uilleann: Volume 1’ will be available from pipers.ie after the launch.