Born into a travelling family in Trim, Co. Meath, and raised in Dublin, Paddy Keenan was the third generation in his family to take up the uilleann pipes. Taught by his father from the age of ten, he played his first major concert at the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, when he was 14. He later played with the rest of his family in a group called The Pavees. Paddy was a founding member of the legendary group The Bothy Band, and his virtuosity on the pipes combined with the ferocity of his playing made him, in the opinion of many, its driving force.
Paddy’s style continued to mature in the intervening years since the break-up of The Bothy Band as he pursued a solo career, and he is widely considered one of the greatest living exponents of uilleann piping. He has brought traditional music to audiences around the globe, playing at festivals including the Rainforest World Music Festival in Borneo, CeltFest Cuba in Havana, and concert tours across Japan, Europe, Australia, and North America. He has performed at the Festival au Desert with Liam Ó Maonlaí (Hothouse Flowers), in Essokane, Mali, Africa, for which a feature length documentary, Dambé: The Mali Project, was made. Recently, Paddy performed for audiences at the Irish Embassies in Moscow, and in Tallinn, Estonia.
