Concerts & Public Events

Victoria Adiiye was raised in Uganda in East Africa. She started playing traditional Ugandan music and classical guitar before hearing recordings of Irish music. As a child, she frequently played in the National Concert Hall in Kampala with her sisters and with the Kampala Symphony Orchestra. She later moved to Minnesota to attend University, where she met guitarist Dáithí Sproule, as well as a host of great local musicians such as Norah Rendell & Brian Miller, who she was lucky enough to take lessons with. Her friendship with Dáithí continued to grow and they have since performed together as a guitar and singing duet. Under the tutelage of Brian Miller, she quickly learned to play the banjo at the age of 17.

She now lives in Ireland where she performs most frequently with her partner, Macdara Ó Faoláin. Victoria has performed at festivals in Ireland, Minnesota, Europe & Canada with Daithí Sproule, Macdara Ó Faoláin, Ciarán Ó Gealbháin & Shane Meehan to name but a few. Her musical and cultural background has led to her unique style as a singer, solo guitarist and banjo player.

Guitarist, singer Dáithí Sproule is a native of Derry in the north of Ireland and has lived for many years in Minnesota. He was a member of the seminal group Skara Brae with Maighread and Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill and their brother Mícheál Ó Domhnaill, with whom he was one of the first people to introduce the guitar tuning DADGAD into Irish music, and he has recorded and performed around the world with many of the greats of Irish traditional music, including Trian (with Liz Carroll and Billy McComiskey), Fingal (with James Keane and Randal Bays) and, for more than thirty years, with the Irish band Altan. Other musicians with whom he has performed include Tommy Peoples, Seamus and Manus McGuire, Peter Ostroushko, James Kelly, Paddy O’Brien, Laura MacKenzie, Dolly Parton and Minnesota blues great Dave Ray. His compositions have been recorded and performed widely.

Dáithí has presented two television documentaries about Irish song — the second, “Ceol na gCoillte” (Woods Music), was broadcast this year on Canadian and Irish tv, the theme being Irish songs and music making their way into North American tradition through the lumber camps.

Dáithí Sproule has also had a life-long commitment to Irish language and culture. His studies on Early Irish poetry and history have been published in the magazine Comhar and in Ériu, a journal of the Royal Irish Academy. His collection of short stories in Irish, An Taobh Eile, was published In 1987. Dáithí has taught Early and Medieval Irish at University College Dublin and courses on Celtic culture, mythology and history at the University of St. Thomas and the University of Minnesota. He has been a teacher at the Center for Irish Music in St. Paul, Minnesota, since 2006.