Noel Hill

The Patrick O'Keeffe Traditional Music Festival classes/workshops take place on Saturday 24th of October at 11am.

Noel Hill

Noel Hill was born in Caherea in West County Clare, Ireland and has been a professional musician for the past 49 years. In County Clare the concertina tradition is so strong the instrument was nicknamed “the Clareman’s Trumpet” and legend has it there was once a concertina in every second house. It was into one of these households that Noel Hill and his 7 siblings was born. His parents, grandparents and grandaunts were all concertina players. He was particularly influenced by his uncle, Padraig A Chnoic (Paddy Hill), who also played the concertina. Noel lived in a house which was the last in the area to hold the traditional House dances, where musicians were always welcomed; particularly towards the end of the year when farm work was done. It was at these events he learned his early music. He started playing at the age of 8. Noel was lucky to have heard endless hours of Willie Clancy, Paddy Canny, Peter O’Loughlin and Paddy Murphy and much of the music in his repertoire today comes from the music learned as a child from these great players. Noel always said he wanted to be a uilleann piper but pipes were not readily available.

Noel has taken the humble concertina from the house dances of County Clare to the big stages throughout the world. He has single handedly elevated the instrument’s popularity, which now has enjoyed tremendous development for the past four decades. This popularity is not only because of Noel’s awe-inspiring performances, along with being a highly respected authority on Ireland’s Traditional Music, but also because of his many years as a committed teacher.

In 1975 Noel Hill teamed up with Tony Linnane, Tony Callanan and Kieran Hanrahan to form the group “Inchiquin”. They recorded one album. Hanrahan and Callanan subsequently left to form Stockton’s Wing and Noel went on to record one of his most celebrated albums “Noel Hill and Tony Linnane” (1978) with Tony Linnane (fiddle), Matt Molloy (flute), Alec Finn (bouzouki and mando-cello) and Micheal O’Domhnaill (harmonium). Inchiquin continued for a time and toured Ireland and Germany with Noel, Tony and Barry Moore (now Luka Bloom).