Maitiú Ó Casaide - Piper

Artists Profile

TG4 Young Musician Of The Year 2015 recipient Maitiú Ó Casaide, is a young Dublin based Uilleann Piper with an impeccable musical pedigree and a very bright future. He is from the third generation of the famed musical Ó Casaide family.Not surprisingly, his was a very musical upbringing as Maitiú grew up in the midst of numerous family sessions and musical gatherings.. His father Feargus and his uncles are the renowned and internationally acclaimed Na Casaidigh. He is twice winner of the esteemed Oireachtas na Gaeilge Pipes competition and is the piper with both The Bonny Men and RÉ.
Maitiú attended Scoil Bhríde, the long-established Gaelscoil just a few streets away from his home in Ranelagh where he learnt the fiddle and tin whistle with various teachers including Éamon 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 Píobairí 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 also been influenced by many of the great pipers, past and present; 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 Gael-Linn 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.
Maitiú, his sister Natalie along with Barry and Conor Lyons, Moss Landman, Turlough Chambers and Adam Whelan form the group The Bonny Men, who since forming in 2011 have made a name for themselves as one of the most exciting bands to come on the scene in recent times. They have released two highly acclaimed albums to date, The Bonny Men(2011) and Moyne Road(2015).
He has toured internationally with RIAN, a contemporary dance show featuring Liam Ó Maonlaí, Eithne Ni Chatháin, Peter O’Toole and Cormac Begley and eight dancers from around the world. The musicians from this show have since released an album December 2014 called RÉ and in May 2015 they completed their first national tour, as part of Tunes in the Church. He also oversaw the production of Amhrán do Phádraig a fundraising album, also released in December 2014, for his friend Pádraig Schaler who acquired severe brain injury in a bicycle accident while working on summer student visa in the USA in 2013. The album which includes Dreamboat, a bilingual song Maitiú composed especially for him.
Maitiú was also involved in the research and production of the recent TG4 documentary about the history of Na Píobairí Uilleann.
Maitiú is also a highly sought after teacher and also he teaches pipes and whistle in Scoil Bhríde, Na Píobairí Uilleann and at various summer schools around the country including the Willie Clancy Summer School Milltown Malbay and Ceol na Coille in Letterkenny.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfdFSHpSOEk