BIOGRAPHY

Jack Talty is a traditional musician, composer, producer, and educator from Lissycasey in County Clare. As a performer, Jack has travelled extensively throughout Europe, the United States, Australia, and Asia, and has contributed to over 100 albums to date as a musician, producer, composer, arranger, and engineer. A regular contributor to traditional music programmes on television and radio, Jack is also the Artistic Director of Raelach Records, a label that he founded in 2011.

In 2011 Jack released the critically acclaimed Na Fir Bolg with fellow concertina player Cormac Begley on the Raelach Records label, and formed Ensemble Ériu with double bass and flute player Neil O’ Loghlen. The band’s eponymous debut album, released by Raelach Records in October 2013 was described by Jim Carroll of the Irish Times as “one of the best Irish albums of 2013”. In January 2015, Ensemble Ériu were awarded the prestigious Gradam Comharcheol TG4 (musical collaboration award presented by Ireland's national Irish language broadcaster). Ensemble Ériu’s second album, Imbas (Ensemble Music and Raelach Records) was nominated as an Irish Times Best Traditional Album of 2016 and was described by RTÉ Culture as “as stunner”. The band’s third album, Stargazer on Diatribe Records, was listed at number 3 in Songlines’ Top Essential Irish Albums of all time. Since 2013 Jack has also performed as a section leader with Dave Flynn’s Irish Memory Orchestra.

A Licentiate of the London College of Music, and a BA and BMus graduate of University College Cork, Jack has been awarded the Mary V. Hart Memorial Award, The Seán Ó Riada Memorial Award, a University College Cork Societies Guild Bene Merenti award, and a University College Cork Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann award. In 2009 Jack completed an MA in Music Technology at the Centre for Computational Musicology and Computer Music at the Department of Computer Science and Information Systems, University of Limerick.

In 2013, Jack was awarded the Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship Award by the Irish Research Council for PhD research at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance. Under the supervision of Dr. Aileen Dillane, the research explored the institutionalisation of Irish traditional music pedagogy in Irish higher education. Subsequent publications have explored areas as diverse as music institutionalisation, canonicity, and arts policy, including a chapter contribution to College Music Curricula for a New Century, edited by Robin D. Moore, and published by Oxford University Press in April 2017. The chapter is entitled Non- Canonical Pedagogies for Non-Canonical Musics: Observations on selected Programmes in Folk, Traditional, World, and Popular Musics.

In February 2019, Jack was appointed as research consultant with Trad Ireland / Traid Éireann, a new entity founded by Oisín MacDiarmada and Tristan Rosenstock, established to promote the traditional arts throughout the island of Ireland and support practitioners through advocacy and professional development opportunities. The subsequent Arts-Council-funded report, “Navigating the Traditional Arts Sector in Ireland: A Report on Resources, Challenges, and Opportunities", was published in November 2020.

An experienced educator, Jack has taught undergraduate and postgraduate classes in diverse areas of performance and research at University College Cork, the Irish World Academy at the University of Limerick, Maynooth University, and the National University of Ireland, Galway. He has also tutored at festivals such as the Willie Clancy Summer School, the South Sligo Summer School, the Joe Mooney Summer School Drumshanbo, Meitheal, Corofin Traditional Festival, Return to Camden Town, London, New South Wales Fleadh Nua Festival Australia, Ennis Traditional Festival, Scoil Ceoil an Earraigh, Scoil Cheoil na Botha, Éigse Mrs. Crotty, The Concertina Cruinniú Miltown Malbay, Consairtín Concertina Festival Ennis, the Fleadh Nua, the Joseph Browne School of Traditional Music, and Ceardlann Earraigh.

In November 2016, Jack released his debut solo concertina album, In Flow on Raelach Records. In September 2018, he was appointed Traditional Artist in Residence at University College Cork. The following year, Jack and photographer and filmmaker Maurice Gunning were appointed as the inaugural Clare Arts Office Creators in Residence at the Irish Traditional Music Archive. Duala, the film produced during this residency was premiered at Glór, Ennis, on Culture Night 2020.

A versatile collaborator, Jack has worked regularly with composer Dave Flynn and the Irish Memory Orchestra, and has performed as a soloist with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and National Symphony Orchestra. He worked with composer Ailís Ní Riain on No Other Word For It, an immersive installation featuring traditional and classical musicians, premiered at Imbolc International Arts Festival, Derry, 26 Jan 2020. He also performed a piece entitled Safe Houses for solo concertina and electronics at the premiere of Aonaracht 1 by Úna Monaghan at New Music Dublin, National Concert Hall, 27 Feb 2020. The piece was subsequently released on a acclaimed-album, released by Monaghan in 2023.

Throughout January 2020, Jack performed on a nationwide Music Network Tour with Dónal Ó Connor (fiddle), Anxo Lorenzo (gaita and whistles), and Jim Murray (guitar).

Jack works regularly as a peer advisor to the Arts Council of Ireland, and has contributed to the Council's Making Great Art Work 2020-22 strategy, and he has acted as a consultant on Council policies relating to artist pay and remuneration, and mentorship initiatives. He is an expert panelist for Culture Ireland funding awards and has previously assessed Music Network's Music Capital Scheme. Jack has served as a Board Member of Glór, Ennis since 2021.

Jack was appointed Lecturer in Irish Traditional Music at the School of Film, Music and Theatre at University College Cork in August 2021. In 2024, he led the design and establishment of UCC's first MA in Irish Traditional Music. Jack's academic work draws on ethnomusicology, musicology, artistic research, and music technology to explore topics as diverse as traditional arts pedagogy, musical canonicity and institutionalisation, the album as creative process, arts advocacy and policy and music technology.

As a composer, Jack's creative output includes a diverse body of work ranging from traditional dance tunes and airs, to Minimalist ensemble pieces, to ambient electroacoustic music for screen and multimedia projects.