About Me
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Wherever he plays, Skip generates excitement. Whether at the Plough and Stars or Irelands 32 in San Francisco CA., the Town Crier or the Blarney Star in New York city, or at festivals such as the Fasnacht in Switzerland, Austin Celtic Festival, Snug Harbor Irish Music Festival (Staten Island, NY), Mystic Seaport Sea Music Festival (Mystic, CT), the Festival of Pipers (Quebec City, Canada), the 700 year old Pfyffer Daj (Ribeauville, France), or at his home in Rosegreen, Co. Tipperary, Ireland, the music flows when Healy is in the room.
Collaborations & Teaching
Skip's reputation for unique teaching styles and theories (private, group, and master class settings) has also grown over the last 20 years. Now a frequent lecturer at the university level, Healy also hosts an annual wooden flute festival called Wind On The Bay in his hometown of East Greenwich, RI.
Great Irish musicians including fiddler Liz Carroll and Lawrence Nugent, as well as the group Solas, have recorded Skip's flute compositions. He has performed and recorded with an all-star selection of traditional musicians including, Aine Minogue, Flynn Cohen, Johnny Cunningham (RIP), Michael and Triona O'Domhnaill, Robbie O'Connell, Mick Moloney, John Doyle, John Williams, Paddy Keenan, Paddy Reynolds, Kevin Burke, Phillip Donnelly, Lui Collins, Rhode Island-based band Pendragon, and many others.
Recordings & Solo Projects
While he has played on over 40 recordings and literally hundreds of international radio and television shows, his past solo recordings, Grammy-nominated "Empty Pockets" (1985), "Live from New York" (1987), and "Farewell New England Shores" (1991), have won him both popular and critically acclaimed success. Healy's CD, "Purgatory Chasm", became available in February 2001. In 2003, he also released "Have Ye This One?", a compilation of thirty tunes played at different skill levels and speeds to accommodate students at any skill level. This CD also has an accompanying tunebook. Most recently, Skip formed "The Cartel", a spirited band featuring Healy, Marc Bernier, Mark Poloka, and others among the usual suspects. In 2006, The Cartel released its first self-titled CD.
The Healy Flute Company
Skip established the Healy Fife and Flute Company in East Greenwich, Rhode Island in 1993. He specializes in the designing and building of a wide variety of wooden flutes, fifes, and piccolos. Beautifully finished and trimmed with sterling silver, Skip has supplied these fine instruments to musicians all over the world.
More Honors & Current News
As of January 2000, Skip's recordings have been added to Ireland's Traditional Music Archive in Dublin. In June 2000, Skip was appointed curator of the James Mitchell Varnum House Museum in East Greenwich, RI. Beginning in March 2004, Skip will be an advisor to and occasional player with the Spirit of America Fife & Drum Corps at Epcot (Walt Disney World), Lake Buena Vista, FL.
A brief sampling of some of Skip's reviews:
"Skip Healy...regarded as the world's greatest fifer."
Yankee Magazine, November 2000, Rhode Island Wants You, P. 26
"The brightest, rowdiest Irish flute player you'll hear on either side of the Atlantic Ocean."
-- Laura Travis, "The Nice Paper" (Prov. R.I.)
"One of the finest Irish flutists in the U.S. today."
-- Irish Voice (N.Y.)
"Skip sprays sixteenth notes like machine gun bullets, dazzling listeners with his daring high speed improvisations."
-- Don Meade (Blarney Stone, New York City )
"Enough energy to light up the city."
-- Basler Zeitung (Basel Switzerland )
"Something to crow about, I took great pleasure in it."
-- Irish poet and Nobel Laureate Seamus Heany on Skip's recording "Farewell New England Shores"
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