IONA SCOTTISH SESSION

 Dempsey’s Family Portrait                           Session stalwart, Tom Dunne

A photo exhibition “The Open Session” by Matt Diaz of portraits and performance shots of NYC based folk musicians was mounted at the Jalopy Theater that ran April 10th  to April 24th 2014. To celebrate the opening,  there was a fiddle and pipes concert starring Troy MacGillivray, Katie McNally and Ben Miller, plus Iona session regulars Amy Beshara, Calum Pasqua, Andrew Forbes and Matt himself, wearing his musician hat.

Matt Diaz is an avid musician and photographer, who has spent the last year capturing decisive moments at many traditional music sessions in the New York Area, with favorites including The Dempsey’s Irish Session in Manhattan and the Iona Scottish Session on Grand Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The show is a celebration of the vibrant NYC traditional music scene and the incredible mix of people who gather every night in small groups to make music together. Be it Irish, Old Time, Scottish, Cape Breton, Galician or the music of Brittany, the sense of joy and community is the same. A wide range of players is represented and preserved in the show, proving that Folk music is at it’s greatest when democratic and open to all. Some players were trained from birth and are truly masters of their craft, while others are improving via the education efforts of NYC institutions like Irish Arts Center and Jalopy Folk School.

The show was a great success with musicians pictured in the photos and the general musician crowd and audiences at Jalopy. A profile of Matt and the show  was featured in The Brooklyn Paper.

PHOTO EXHIBITION:  MATT DIAZ  “THE OPEN SESSION” (An Seisiún Oscailte)  Jalopy Theater, 315 Columbia St., Brooklyn NY  – April 10th-24th 2014

Pipes and Fiddle Concert to celebrate the opening at Jalopy – April 10th $15 8pm