A SOUTHSIDE piper from one of the country’s leading musical families has been awarded the prestigious Ceoltóir Ã?g TG4 (Young Musician Award).
Maitiú � Casaide, from Ranelagh, was among the winners of the TG4 Gradam Ceoil 2015 (Traditional Music Awards) that were announced at a reception in Cork City Hall last week.
An independent panel of adjudicators selects recipients of the TG4 Gradam Ceoil every year with each winner presented with a specially-commissioned piece by sculptor John Coll as well as a stipend.
A unique, star-studded line-up of musicians and award-presenters will attend the awards ceremony and Gradam Ceoil Concert that will take place in the Cork Opera House on Sunday, February 22.
Maitiú, a young uilleann piper with an impeccable musical pedigree, has a very bright future ahead of him.
Born and reared in Ranelagh, he is from the third generation of the famed musical � Casaide family. His father Feargus and his uncles and aunt are the renowned and internationally acclaimed Na Casaidigh. Not surprisingly, his was a very musical upbringing as Maitiú grew up in the midst of numerous family sessions and musical gatherings.
Maitiú attended Scoil BhrÃde, the long-established Gaelscoil just a few streets away from his home where he learnt the fiddle and tin whistle with various teachers including Ã?amon Doorley, Michelle O’Brien and Maureen McGrattan.
At the age of 10 and fascinated by the sound of his uncle Odhrán’s pipes, Maitiú decided he wanted a set of his own. He started attending classes at Na PÃobairà Uilleann where he had numerous teachers over the years including Joe Doyle, Nollaig Mac Cárthaigh, Leo Rickard, Tommy Martin, Harry Bradley and Seán Potts. He later went on to have lessons with Conor McKeon.
He has been also influenced by many of the great pipers, past and present including Séamus Ennis, Willie Clancy, Tommy Reck, Patsy Touhey and Seán McKiernan.
His secondary school years in another famous musical hothouse, the long-established Coláiste Eoin in Stillorgan, had a big bearing on his musical development.
Here he won the Siansa talent competition with his band Ar an bPreab in 2007. Since graduating from Trinity College with a degree in History and Irish in 2011, he has taken to music full-time and he plays regularly with his friends in The Cobblestone Bar in Smithfield.
He sometimes plays as a guest with Na Casaidigh and sings with the family in the choir founded by his grandfather over 40 years ago to enhance the liturgy in Irish at their local church in Beechwood Avenue Church in Ranelagh.
Maitiú also teaches pipes weekly at NPU and annually at the Willie Clancy Summer School Milltown Malbay. He also teaches whistle at his old primary school.