Mel Mercier is Professor and Chair of Performing Arts at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick. Mel wrote a lovely piece in tribute to Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin for the Irish Echo:
“Admired and beloved of his students, colleagues, fellow musicians, friends and audiences alike, his ultimate vision was both humanitarian and spiritual in the widest sense. That vision is given voice in his own music and the musical legacy he has bequeathed to so many. I cannot begin to fathom the loss for his family of this remarkable man, and it is too soon, or maybe just too great a task for me, to understand or appreciate the depth of his contributions to Irish cultural life, or the immensity of his gifts to me as a mentor, fellow-musician, colleague and friend.
What I cherish most of all are those many sublime moments when I sat with my bodhrán and bones in the well of the piano, swept up and transported by the force of Mícheál’s ebullient energy, searching out the deepest grooves in his fluid, inventive and richly textured synthesis of traditional, classical and jazz musics. What I miss most of all is the familiar, magical, ritual space of our duet, with its potent mix of pulse, play, discovery, humor, tenderness and possibility.”
Read the full piece here: www.irishecho.com/2019/01/micheal-o-suilleabhain-echoes-from-the-well/
