John's music is both intricate and high energy, and his extraordinary musical talent combined with a razor sharp wit and a gift for bantering with the audience make for a wonderful evening of tunes and stories. This concert takes us deep into the Celtic tradition, with one of the finest Irish flute players currently performing in America. Born in London of Irish parentage (his father and grandfather were both accomplished flute and tinwhistle players) John Skelton is best known from his work with The House Band, with whom he recorded seven albums on the Green Linnet label. He has also released three solo albums, ‘One at a Time’, ‘A Few Tunes’ and ‘A Few More Tunes.’His latest recording Double Barrelled is a flute duet CD (possibly the first such) with Kieran O’Hare. This has become something of an instant classic and has received considerable radio play on both sides of the Atlantic. HAVE A LISTEN HERE!I He is the flute player in the Kevin Burke All Star Ceili Band, and has performed and recorded with many other well-known names in Irish music. In 1999, John formed The Windbags, a quartet playing Irish, Scottish and Breton music on wind instruments, which also included Pat O’Gorman, Jerry O’Sullivan and the late singer/multi-instrumentalist Tony Cuffe. John has performed at all of the major folk festivals in North America, Europe and Australia including Vancouver, Winnipeg, Philadelphia, Edinburgh, and the National in Canberra. He has given concerts in twenty-five countries, and U.S. venues have included The White House and the Lincoln Center.addition to his background in Irish music, John is also well schooled in the music of Brittany. NPR’s The Thistle and Shamrock recently described him as “the finest bombarde player outside of Brittany”. John also plays the ‘Piston’ (low bombarde), the ‘Veuze’ (bagpipe of Eastern Brittany) and the ‘Gaita Gallega’ (bagpipe of Galicia), and of course, the tinwhistle. Read an interview with John about the Irish Flute.

Accompanying John will be dancer and percussionist Matthew Olwell. Matthew has been dancing and playing flute, tin whistle and percussion for nineteen years. He was a part of a family business from an early age, learning the craft of flute making from his father Patrick Olwell, and attending many festival and music events up and down the East Coast. He has studied with some of the finest teachers in tradition dance, including Donny Golden, Eileen Carson, Benoit Bourque, The Fiddle Puppets, and Liam Harney. He danced for nine years with the Maryland based Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble, with whom he performed in Riverdance and toured Scotland, Wales, Canada, Finland and the United States. Over many years, Matthew has expanded his love and knowledge of dance to include Appalachian clogging, tap, various styles of step dance, hamboning, and flatfooting. Matthew now lives in Virginia and together with his brother, Aaron Olwell, Meg Madden, and Josephine Stewart started the music and dance group Hell on the Nine Mile. They performed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Old Songs Festival, and were favorites ar local contra dances in Virginia, as well as Ohio, New York and Pennsylvania. In the fall of 2005 they released their first recording, titled Witt’s End. In 2006 Matthew founded Good Foot Dance Company with dancers Emily Oleson and Meg Madden, appearing in A Charlottesville Wunderkammer, Shentai and the Irish dance drama Robin Hood, which Matthew co-produced with director Emily Oleson. Matthew alsodances and plays plays percussion with James Leva and Purgatory Mountain. They have appeared at Merlefest, and in 2006 toured France, Germany and Switzerland. They released their first recording, Winkin' Eye in February of 2007. Most recently, Matthew appears in the just-released music video by Rounder recording artists Uncle Earl.