Riley School of Irish Music

This Thursday! Join us for an Irish session at the Irish Heritage Center of Greater Cincinnati. Gather at 6:45pm for a 7pm start!

Join us!

Join us Sunday afternoon at Big Ash Brewing for some Irish tunes, a cold beverage and some great La Rosa's food!

3pm Slow session
4pm Speed picks up

Hope to see you there!

Tonight's session...We are on the right side of the Pavillion as your back is to the sun. Park around the back and walk up the driveway in the back.

The Riley School of Irish Music would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to Errol Byers and Tara Mazur for their years of teaching, mentoring, and sharing their love of the bodhrán with our community. Their dedication and generosity have inspired countless students, and we are deeply grateful for the time and talent they have given to Riley.

While Errol and Tara will be stepping away from their teaching roles due to other commitments, we are excited to announce that John McBride will be taking over Bodhrán classes at Riley this fall!

John is a highly accomplished Kerry-style bodhrán player, performer, and instructor with decades of experience in Irish music. He has taught workshops across the country, performed with the Cincinnati Pops and many celebrated Irish musicians, recorded on 13 albums, released a bestselling instructional video, and authored the book That Bodhrán Player (from Cincinnati).

We are thrilled to welcome John to the Riley teaching staff and look forward to the energy, experience, and passion he will bring to our bodhrán program.

Please join us in thanking Errol and Tara for all they’ve contributed — and in welcoming John to the Riley community!

Tomorrow! Come enjoy some LaRosa’s food and a beverage or two.

Irish music at Big Ash! Tomorrow @6:30 🇮🇪🍺

Riley is happy to announce that Nancy Keyser will teach a 5-week lilting workshop in Fall 2026! Lilting, also called “mouth music”, “diddling”, or "port a'bhéil," uses sung vocable syllables such as ‘dom’, ‘die’, ‘dee’ ,‘day’, phrased to fit into the rhythm and contour of a tune. It is focused on rhythmic expression for dancing rather than the storytelling focus of sean nós singing. At the intersection of the instrumental, dance and song traditions, lilting has played an integral role in the transmission and continuation of Irish traditional music. This workshop will focus on learning Irish traditional music by ear through lilting. Though lilting is usually performed solo, we will spend much of the time lilting together as a class. Some focus will be made on using lilting as a learning/practice technique for other instruments.

This class is a five-week workshop rather than a full 10-week class (tuition is reduced accordingly) and will start a week later than other classes, on September 19. Direct questions to Nancy at [email protected].

Third Thursday session at the IHC, May 21st. Doors open at 6:45pm. Come play some tunes and enjoy a cold beverage.

Due to cool temps, tonight's session is switched from Ault Park to Kathy's. Please contact her for details... [email protected].