Mick Moloney, Athena Tergis and Billy McComiskey Bios, plus Michelle Mulcahy March 15, 2014 Concert, 8:00 pm The Irish Center, Philadelphia PA.

Athena Tergis hails from San Francisco where she released her first album at age 16. Shortly after she moved to to follow her musical passions., she lived there for over 3 years playing with groups such as the Sharon Shannon Band. Her musical journey brought her to London and then on to New York where she starred in Riverdance on Broadway for the full year and a half run of the show. Her talent for many genres of music attracted the attention of Bruce Springsteen’s sax player, Clarence Clemmons with whom she toured for over a year. In 2001 Athena joined up with Mick Moloney, John Doyle and Billy McComiskey in the Green Fields of America playing a wide range of traditional Irish tunes and songs. Athena Tergis’ solo album ‘A Letter Home’ was produced and accompanied by John Doyle. In 2009, Athena performed as a featured soloist in a 49-city tour of the Dublin Philharmonic Orchestra.

Billy McComiskey, All-Ireland champion accordionist, grew up in Brooklyn and learned much of his early repertoire and style from the late Sean McGlynn, a native of Tynagh County Galway. Billy played in the Washington D.C. area with the noted group, The Irish Tradition, for over a decade and for several years was a member of the group Trian where he played with fiddler and guitarist Daithi Sproule. He is widely considered one of the most skilled and inventive virtuoso musicians in Irish American music. He has toured nationally with Trian and The Green Fields of America and was one of the featured performers in the prestigious Eigse na Laoi -- a major festival celebrating the disapora of Irish traditional musicians worldwide. Billy has also appeared on the PBS show Absolutely Irish.

Mick Moloney combines the careers of professional musician, folklorist, musicologist, teacher and arts presenter and advocate. He holds a Ph.D. in folklore and folklife from the University of Pennsylvania. He has taught ethnomusicology, folklore and Irish studies courses at the University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown University and Villanova University and currently teaches at New York University in the Irish Studies Program and the Music Dept. In 2008 he won the Golden Dozen Award for teaching excellence at NYU. He is an accomplished singer as well as an instrumentalist and possesses a vast storehouse of songs and instrumental pieces from the Irish and Irish-American tradition. He has served on National Endowment for the Arts panels and tax forces and hosted three nationally syndicated series of folk music on American Public Television. He was a consultant, performer and interviewee on the Irish Television special Bringing It All Back Home, a participant, consultant and music arranger of the PBS documentary film, Out of Ireland and a music researcher and performer on the 1998 PBS special The Irish in America: Long Journey Home. In 1999 he was awarded the National Heritage Award from the National Endowment for the Arts – the highest official honor a traditional artist can receive in the United States. His latest two internationally acclaimed CD’s McNally’s Row of Flats and If It Wasn’t For the Irish and the Jews, explore songs of the nineteenth and early twentieth century popular stage in America. McNally’s Row of Flats was named the best album of the year by the Irish Echo and If It Wasn’t For the Irish and the Jews won the Irish Livies award for best Irish album of the year in 2007 and 2009 respectively.

Michelle Mulcahy, All-Ireland champion on the harp, accordion, and concertina, is one of Ireland’s most talented and gifted multi-instrumentalists in Irish traditional music today. Her array of instrumental mastery spans the harp, concertina, piano, fiddle and accordion. Michelle is considered to be one of Ireland’s most adroit and creative harpers. She is currently pursuing her PhD studies in Arts Practice at the University of Limerick.