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Jimmy Noonan performing at Boston College, 2014. Photo credit Paul Wells, Irish flute and penny whistle player, 2014
James Noonan
Holbrook, Massachusetts
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Flute player Jimmy Noonan hails from Cleveland, Ohio, where he grew up steeped in the traditional music of County Clare, Ireland. He learned from immigrant musicians who as he says were "the pillars of their society, playing for weddings, funerals and political events, their importance was immense."
Dedicated to passing on the tradition, Noonan has run his own music schools in Cleveland and Boston. National Heritage Fellow Seamus Connolly invited Noonan to teach at Boston College, where he has been an adjunct professor in the music department since 1996. In addition, he has taught at many of the premier Irish Music Summer Schools in the country including Gaelic Roots, Catskills Irish Arts Week, and Milwaukee Irish Fest. Noonan has performed at many of the premier festivals in the United States including the Kent State Folk Festival, Washington Irish Festival, Wolftrap, Cleveland Irish Festival, Milwaukee Irish Fest, and the National Folk Festival. In 2005, he was elected to the Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann Hall of Fame Northeast Region. He has two recorded two albums: The Maple Leaf: Irish Traditional Music from Boston (2003) and The Clare Connection (1993) and is known as a popular leader of the best Irish music sessions to be found in and around New England.
In 2014, James Noonan was awarded a Mass Cultural Council Artist Fellowship in the Traditional Arts.
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