Pat O'Riordan: Pennywhistle Maker

Patrick O’Riordan was born in England, to Irish parents. He immigrated to Indiana in 1959, to work as a mechanical engineer. He retired from ‘real work’ in 1991 and now faces a backlog of orders for his whistles, which are played by many groups and artists, most notably Joanie Madden of Cherish the Ladies. Today his whistles are considered to be among the best made and are in great demand by professional players. ‘I had never played a whistle in England or Ireland; I played recorder. But I was at a fiddlers’ gathering down near Lafayette, and I saw this young fellow sitting underneath a tree with a crowd of people around him, and he was playing just a simple, six-hole traditional tin whistle. And he kept that crowd fascinated for two hours, and I was included. And I bought a whistle and taught myself and started from there. I got interested in making the whistles about 1987 and progressed from the standard commercial-type whistle to ones I thought might sound better and look nicer, perhaps, or different.’

Видео Pat O'Riordan: Pennywhistle Maker канала Jon Kay