Siobhán Kelly
Siobhán (Moloney) Kelly was raised in East County Clare, and was immersed in traditional music and dancing. Her parents were great dancers and music lovers who encouraged Siobhán and all of their children to play music and dance. The local musicians and bands from the area are now music legends including the Tulla Ceili band, Paddy Canny, Martin Rochford, P.J. Hayes, and Joe Bane.
Siobhán took up the tin whistle and flute at the age of 11, taking lessons after school in O’Callaghans Mills with Deirdre O’Brien-Vaughan. Her early influences were the Tulla Ceili Band, including flute players Peadar O’Loughlin and J.J. Conway, and Joe Bane from Feakle. Her music education included some informal tutelage from fiddler-piper-whistle player and family friend Martin Rochford from nearby Ballynahinch. Sessions were held in the Moloney house with locals Martin Rochford, Paddy Canny and Joe Bane, and occasional guests such as West Clare fiddler and composer, Junior Crehan.
Siobhán performed in concerts and competitions with teacher Deirdre O’Brien Vaughan and fellow students and friends Josephine Marsh, Geraldine MacNamara, Eithne Ni Dhonaile, Paula O’Regan, Frances Custy, sister Norma Moloney and brother John Moloney. With this group, she appeared on RTE television and Radió na Gaeltachta programs.
While studying in Dublin, Siobhan played with whistle-player and friend Kathleen Conneely, fiddler Conor Tully and accordion player John Canny. Her studies brought her further north to University of Ulster in Coleraine, County Derry, where she played with flute player Gary Hastings and fiddler Nóirín Ní Ghrádaigh and others in local sessions in Portstewart and Portrush.
Upon graduation, Siobhán decided to spend a summer working in New York. She lived in Queens and the Bronx and played in sessions with New York musicians and with Irish immigrant musicians including piper Tom Coffey, accordionist Denis Galvin and fiddler Fiona Doherty. She met her future husband, fiddler Willie Kelly, at a session in Queens. She also met and played with Galway flute greats Jack Coen and Mike Rafferty during this time.
She returned home and worked in her family’s business until her marriage to Willie Kelly two years later in Clare. She moved to America in 1992, where she played with Willie Kelly, Jack Coen, Mike Rafferty, Fr. Charlie Coen, Joe Madden, Dominic Rooney, Johnny Cronin and other great New York-based musicians. On music weekends in Gilboa and Leeds in the Catskills, she met and played with flute and whistle player Mike McHale, piper Benedict Kohler, and accordion and harpist Hilari Farrington as well as other great players.
Siobhán lives and teaches music in New Jersey where she has educated and raised six children who are all accomplished musicians. She hosts a monthly children’s session at the Irish American Association of North West New Jersey, and trains music groups for competitions with her husband and brother-in-law Regan Wick. She performs and teaches at the Catskills Irish Arts Week and local sessions and enjoys playing at home with her family, nieces, nephews, former students and friends.