From his beginning lessons with John Keenan Sr., father of well-known piper Paddy Keenan, Martin Nolan’s uilleann piping has taken him, both solo and ensemble, throughout Europe and the UK, India, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
Recent performances include a concert at the Lincoln Centre for the Arts in New York and various theatre productions for the Abbey and Pavilion Theatres, Dublin, and the Royal National Theatre, London. Martin also performed with CoisCéim, a modern dance company, at the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, Massachusetts and at Ten Days on the Island Festival, Tasmania.
Martin composed the music for Ouroboros Theatre Ireland's 2007 production of Making History (Brian Friel), commemorating the 200th anniversary of the Flight of the Earls.
In October and November 2004, Martin toured western Canada with Will Millar (formerly of the Irish Rovers and The Unicorn Song fame) and his show, Ireland: Where the Song and Dance Began. Martin has also done work for RTÉ, the national radio station, and has appeared on The Pure Drop (traditional music), Leargas (arts programme), Come West Along the Road, and various other documentaries on national television in Ireland.
As well as being part of the Irish traditional scene, Martin played in a Dublin-based band, Khanda, which featured the music of India, eastern Europe, the Middle East and Ireland. In 2001, Khanda toured India with the Karnataka College of Percussion, following up the tour with a recording in Ireland. A documentary, “Five Cities,†of this tour and subsequent concert in Vicar Street was aired on RTÉ in October 2001.
Martin has played alongside jazz greats such as Dave Liebman, Michael Brecker, Ronan Guilfoyle, Tommy Halferty, Michael Buckley and the Boclé Brothers. Other collaborative work includes virtuoso Hungarian violinist Zoltan Lantos and Japanese performance artist Keiji Haino.
Martin’s first recording, Travel’n Style, was hailed as an excellent debut release appealing to a much wider audience than strictly traditional music lovers.
His latest solo album, Bright Silver Dark Wood -- “an aural feast of musical soul food†(Irish Music Magazine) -- contains many of Martin’s own previously unrecorded compositions, including a song which Martin co-wrote with Richard Abbott and AnnMarie O’Grady at an IMRO songwriters’ week in Killarney 1999, and a number of pieces from the James Goodman Manuscripts, ‘Tunes of the Munster Pipers’ (published 1998 by The Irish Traditional Music Archive; ed. Hugh Shields). These manuscripts were compiled over a twenty year period in the mid nineteenth century and were deposited by his family, after his death in 1896, in the library of Trinity College Dublin. Until now, these melodies have lain silent for over a hundred years.
Martin plays Andreas Rogge uilleann pipes and Cillian O’Briain low whistles.
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