It is a huge honour and privilege for Feile Oriel to have Donald Shaw appearing not once, but twice at our festival this year. Last April Donald came to Monaghan for the very first time ever as part of the hand-picked SUPERBAND that Feile Oriel requested.

Along with Mike McGoldrick, Dezi Donnelly and Tim Edey this bunch of gifted musicians wowed the audience as the headline gig for the festival weekend. Along with Steve Cooney who was the guest artist on stage with them they each agreed that this was a truly unique and memorable night as performers… given the rapturous reception and attentivness they were given by the audience.

Donald was blown away by Monaghan. This will be another first for Donald Shaw as he and Tim Edey prepare a brand new musical experience for them and the audience in Monaghan on Friday May the 3rd. Feile Oriel has made it a goal of the festival to bring new collaborations to the weekend. It will be a much-eagerly anticapated event.

Donald Shaw is an acclaimed Scottish musician, producer, festival director and award-winning composer. He has recorded and collaborated on over 100 albums with musicians in all styles of music, created Bafta winning soundtracks and directed large-scale live commissions.

His compositions have been performed by the BBC London Philharmonic, the Halle Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

He has toured worldwide with Capercaillie – the Scots folk band he co-founded whilst at school in Argyll – who have gone on to sell over a million albums with their unique sound of Gaelic songs & contemporary soundscapes.

In the last 20 years he has recorded and performed in many unique scenarios, with artists such as James Taylor, Alison Krauss, Mark Knopfler, Mary-Chapin Carpenter, Vicente Amigo, Rosanne Cash, Julie Fowlis, James Grant, Tommy Smith and Ornette Coleman.

He has composed extensively for film and TV on various styles including the BBC Network Nature series ‘Scotland’s Wild Heart’, flagship BBC Alba drama ‘Bannan’, and the Bafta winning children’s TV series ‘Katie Morag’. His soundtrack to ‘Hebrides – Islands on the Edge’ (narrated by Ewan McGregor) was nominated for the coveted Jackson Hole award. He has produced live music projects for National Theatre of Scotland, Edinburgh International Festival, Womad UK, BBC Proms, London Olympics 2012 and Commonwealth Games Festival 2014, and he owns the independent label ‘Vertical Records’, which has released over 40 acclaimed albums.

He is currently principal Creative Producer for Glasgow’s Celtic Connections; the largest roots festival of it’s kind in the UK, with an annual audience of over 120,000. 

Recent projects have included original music for an HBO series and producing a new album for the Gaelic trio ‘Sian’.