Roscommon musician Dylan Carlos, as well as an American fiddler of Roscommon roots, will be amongst the competitors in the final for the Seán Ó Riada Gold medal competition which takes place in Cork this Friday (February 1st).
Dylan Carlos, from Castleplunkett in Co. Roscommon, comes from a very musical family. Although he grew up in the home of flute playing, fiddle is his instrument of choice, but he says he’s still heavily influenced by the music in his local area. He’s a member of the Knocknashee Céilí Band, and Cryan’s Teach an Cheoil in Carrick-on-Shannon is his local spot for tunes, as well as Hanly’s Bar in Strokestown.
Dylan has just finished a degree in chemistry in NUI Galway and is living in Limerick at the moment. He is currently working on an album with Cavan flute player Cein Sweeney and Leitrim guitarist, John McCartin, due for release this spring.
Seamus Wick is from New Jersey, but comes from Roscommon ‘stock’. His maternal grandfather, Joe Kelly, was from Fuerty but emigrated to the Bronx in New York in the 1950s where he worked as a shoe salesman. He too was a fiddler, and his son, Willie Kelly, who is Seamus’s uncle, continues the tradition and was the first teacher that young Seamus had as a boy.
Dylan and Seamus will be two of seventeen competitors who have made the final for the Seán Ó Riada Gold Medal, with the winner taking home €2,500 as well as the coveted, specially-designed medal.
The final will be broadcast live on RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta this Friday evening from 7 pm, and will also be streamed live to the RnaG Facebook page.
