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Eliot Grasso (uilleann pipes), Dan Carollo (guitar), and dancer Alicia Guinn
About Eliot Grasso: (www.eliotgrasso.com )
Eliot began playing Irish traditional music on the flute at age seven, tin whistle at age eight, and uilleann pipes at age eleven. Since 1996, Eliot has won regional and international first, second, and third place titles at the Mid-Atlantic Fleadh Cheoil and Ireland’s International Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann in the uilleann pipes and tin whistle division.
Eliot has made appearances at the Kennedy Center with Liz Carroll, Constitution Hall with Ethnomusicologist Dr. Mick Moloney, the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall with The Chieftains, the Library of Congress with Cherish the Ladies, the National Building Museum, the National Geographic Concert Hall and the home of the Irish Ambassador. In addition, Eliot has performed for the National Heritage Awards and has entertained President and Mrs. Clinton at the National Endowment for the Arts Awards. At the conclusion of the 1998 Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann, Eliot performed alongside other All-Ireland champions in a concert for Irish President, Mary Robinson.
Eliot has recently been accepted to the University of Oregon where he will pursue doctoral studies in musicology in September 2007.
About Dan Carollo: (www.celtograss.com)
Dan Carollo performs solo and accompaniment Irish-style guitar and has been playing guitar for over 25 years. Bill Fisher of Victory Music Review writes: “Carollo is a wonderful guitarist whose style incorporates the techniques developed by many of today’s finest folk and new age players while at the same time hewing to traditional fingerpicking and Celtic and American sources.”
In 2004, Dan was selected “Northwest Folk Artist of the Month” on KBCS 91.3.
His music was also selected along with several other local artists to debut the City of Seattle’s “On Call” music program in 2006, which features the music of local Northwest artists. Dan performs annually at the Northwest Folklife Festival. Dan currently lives in Sammamish, WA.
About Alicia Guinn: (www.myspace.com/seannosseattle)
Alicia Guinn started dancing as an adult while living in Northern Ireland ten years ago. Since then, she has studied set and sean-nós dancing in Galway, Ireland, taught Irish dance workshops for festivals across the United States, and danced on stage with prominent traditional musicians like The Chieftains, Johnny B. Connolly, and Liz Carroll and John Doyle.
Her sean-nós style reveals the direct influence of Galway dancers including Pádraig Ó hOibicín, Róisín Ní Mhainín, Rónán Regan, and the DeVaney family.
Alicia currently teaches sean-nós, set, and céilí dancing in the Seattle area. She is one of only a handful of dancers teaching sean-nós dancing in America.