Dun Laoghaire Guitar Night 7

Dun Laoghaire Guitar Night returns to the Eblana Club on Friday June 21st (doors 7.30/music 8.00)

John Walsh
An accomplished musician and composer, John Walsh has been performing solo since 2006 and is Ireland's leading flamenco guitarist.

After obtaining a Diploma with distinction in classical guitar from Trinity College London in 2006, John dedicated his studies exclusively to Flamenco guitar. He studied with guitarist Francisco Garcia in Dublin before travelling to Algeciras, Spain, home of the legendary Paco de Lucia to study with Salvador Andrades. He has since studied with other masters of Flamenco such as Jose Manuel Leon and Juan Antonio Suarez.

John was one of the 10 musicians (and the only guitarist) chosen for the 2009 ‘Musicians of the Future’ concert in the National Concert Hall performing 2 original compositions composed specially for the concert.

Along with performing concerts throughout Ireland and venues in Spain and the UK, he has performed in one of the most historically important flamenco venue’s ,’El Candela’ in Madrid, as well as being the invited International Artist for the 2014 Flamenco Festival Flamenco de Consuegra.

In 2015 he had the honour of being invited to play at the 2nd International Paco de Lucia Guitar festival, a major flamenco festival in honour of the great Paco de Lucia, in the Maestro’s hometown of Algeciras

He has composed music for and performed with the National Ballet of Ireland, Bill Whelan’s Riverdance & Michael Rooney’s De Cuellar Orchestra among others and performed for the Irish President Michael D Higgins.

He has performed onstage with many acclaimed artists including Salvador Andrades, Jose Manuel Leon, Maria Delgado, Alicia Carrasco, Karen Lugo, Luis de Luis, Antonio Sanchez, Juan Ignacio Gonzalez, Gines Pozas, Jaime Salazar Losada, Jaime Nadal Perez, Jose Torres, David Avila, Olayo Jimenez, Lucas Gonzalez, Mercedes Garcia Lopez, Pepe de Algeciras.

In 2020 John formed an exciting new trio with Uileann Piper David Power and Baroque Violinist Marja Gaynor. The trio perform a programme featuring their own arrangements of traditional Irish tunes, contemporary music as well as music from the Baroque period and the 19th century.

Aside from performing, John has a special passion for music education and with raising the profile and knowledge of Flamenco in Ireland. He regularly gives Flamenco Workshops & Masterclasses throughout Ireland, at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin and in the UK.

In 2020 John released his debut album ‘Irlandalucía, which received widespread critical acclaim both Nationally and Internationally.

Containing 7 original and spellbinding Flamenco guitar compositions composed by John over the last number of years, features collaborations from percussionists from Spain & the Netherlands.

Although a little over a week old at the time, the album was featured by Ellen Cranitch on Ireland’s national classical music radio station Lyric FM as one the ‘best albums of 2020’ as well as receiving airplay in Spain & the USA.

Jenna Harris & Daniel Jacobson (ZOiD)

Jenna Harris is a vocalist, composer and lecturer from Dublin. Jenna graduated from Newpark/DCU’s B.A. in Jazz Performance in 2006 and since then has been a member of the faculty. During Jenna’s research in Trinity college Dublin on the MA Music and Media Technologies, she built a computer application designed to counteract vocal tension caused by performance anxiety in improvising vocalists.

In Jenna’s solo voice generated performances she combines clean vocal improvisation with improvisation of the effects she uses to process her voice live. A style of improv has developed that intrinsically links the two, both feeding back and forth from each other. These performances often incorporate reactive visuals that she builds as a platform to exhibit the voice as the instrument it is.

Jenna is the founding member of three-piece group Berri, with leading creative musicians Matthew Jacobson and Derek Whyte. The group play original compositions as well as interpretations of jazz standards and pop songs from the 60’s/70’s/80’s.

Jenna is a member of guitarist Tommy Halferty’s group Voices and the founding member of the group Claritas, with vocalists Fiadh Rua Gregg and Aleka Potinga.

Jenna regularly collaborates with guitarist and electronic musician Daniel Jacobson (Zoid).

Daniel Jacobson (ZOiD) started playing guitar and writing music at 12 years of age.
His two great interests are techno and jazz guitar. He has been releasing techno tracks since the age of 17 and is one of the founders of Diatribe, Ireland's biggest contemporary music label.
Daniel has released 4 albums and several EPs, on labels including Meljoann’s Boy Scout Audio, D1, and Metamorphic Recordings. He established Ultimate School of Music in Dun Laoghaire, where he puts on workshops and masterclasses in guitar and electronic music.
In 2022 he received an Arts Council Bursary to pursue the composition of electronic jazz music through 2023.

Daniel and Jenna met in school and have played music together since the mid 90s. They have a lot in common, both studied jazz at Newpark Music Centre (Jenna is currently a faculty member at DCU on the jazz degree) and Music and Media Techologies at Trinity College Dublin. They collaborated on several pieces of music together including on Daniel's 2022 ZOiD album "ZONGS" and also for the upcoming album ZOiD Vs Musicians Vol 2.

For Dun Laoghaire Guitar Night they'll play some of their favourite jazz standards from over the years.

Host or Publisher Mark Kilcoyne