Your Instructors & Lecturers

Eliot Grasso (uilleann pipes, flute, tin whistle), has taught, performed, and recorded throughout North America and Europe for over two decades and is a founding member of the Celtic ensemble Dréos. He has performed for President Clinton at the NEA Awards, appeared as a featured artist on “Prairie Home Companion,” performed and taught for the William Kennedy Piping Festival in Armagh, and appeared as a soloist in the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall for Scotland’s National Piping Festival, Piping Live. Eliot has over a dozen recordings to his name, including an album of unaccompanied uilleann piping, which is volume 1 of Na Píobairí Uilleann’s series of master pipers, The Ace and Deuce of Piping. Eliot holds a Ph.D. in musicology from the University of Oregon, and a M.A. in ethnomusicology from the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick. Grasso’s artistic and academic work as a performer, recording artist, composer, and researcher has earned awards from the traditional music community, the recording industry, and the academic establishment. He teaches music at Gutenberg College in Eugene, Oregon. A fuller picture of his endeavors is available at www.eliotgrasso.com.

Fiddler Kira Jewett began studying Suzuki violin at the age of 3, progressing in skill to become a member of the Yale Symphony orchestra during her college years and to perform both solo and ensemble as an adult with several orchestras and chamber groups.  Looking to expand into new genres, she met Martin Hayes at a fiddle camp and was immediately captivated with his style and his musical philosophy.  She apprenticed herself to the great New York Sligo-style fiddler Brian Conway as well as performing and recording in western Montana before returning to the East Coast.  Kira has a particular affinity for slow airs and in 2003 became the first American to win the All-Ireland fiddle slow airs competition.  She has performed with numerous groups, most notably the trio New Leaf which takes inspiration from the compositions of Billy McComiskey, Paddy O’Brien and Liz Carroll, among others.  Her current fiddle students range in age from 4 to 65.

José Emilio Colón Ríos is an independent scholar researching the role of music in protest and political movements across Latin America, with work on Chile, Puerto Rico, and Cuba. He holds a BA in Social Anthropology and a JD from the University of Puerto Rico, and earned a Master’s in Ethnomusicology at the Irish World Academy (2018). His thesis, The Cuban Pipers: The Spread of Uilleann Piping in Cuba, examines how Irish piping took root alongside Cuban Galician and Asturian traditions, aided by the Irish organization Na Píobairí Uilleann. A piper himself, Colón Ríos is deeply engaged with Irish traditional music, performance, and instrument craft.

Iván R. Belvis is a Puerto Rican musician and producer based in Holyoke, Massachusetts. His musical roots began with guitar at age six and formal music training by ten. After an early introduction to Irish traditional music in New York, he became deeply engaged with the genre, particularly as a guitarist.

Now active in New England’s Irish music scene, Iván performs regularly at sessions and events, and is a founding member of the Canal Street Irish Trio. His accompaniment style, rooted in DADGAD tuning, draws from influences like John Doyle and Steve Cooney, focusing on rhythm, tone, and supportive arrangements.

Through his solo project Radharc, he explores self-produced interpretations of Irish folk music with respect for tradition and an ear for creative expression.