Biography
Stephen Doherty hails from Foxford, Co. Mayo in the West of Ireland, he began learning music at the age of 4 and through his teenage years began to accumulate numerous all-Ireland medals on whistle, bodhrán, drums, accordion and is a two time All-Ireland winning Champion on Melodeon and is a senior All-Ireland Champion on the flute.
His first music based international trip was at the age of 17 to Cleveland Music Festival in America, and at the age of 18 he became a full time musician joining FOM productions for for various shows throughout France and America over the next year. While juggling between teaching and touring, he then became the resident Traditional Irish Music Teacher at the Renowned Mayo School of Music teaching 5 Instruments to a student base of over 100 students a week.
Throughout 2008/2009 he toured America & Europe with Various productions including Celtic Crossroads, Ragús the Show and highly acclaimed Irish band Slide, he also became one of the resident Melodeon players for the annual Oireactas Sean Nós Dancing Championships aired live on TG4 and joined the Cunningham family at Fuaim Chonamara for a National Tour.
In 2009, Stephen Joined Irish band Gráda as a fulltime member, embarking on a world tour and the recording of a new Cd at Compass Records in Nashville.
Through 2009- 2012 Stephen continued to tour with Gráda, Ragús, Slide & Atlantic Steps performing in over 20 countries .
In 2012 Stephen released his first duo CD with Guitarist Patrick Doocey entitled ‘The Foxford Way’ and embarked on a 35 night tour of Germany.
In 2013, Stephen was approached to produce and compose music for a unique new Irish Danceshow titled ‘TitanicDance’ . The show based on the legendary stricken ship was launched to a sell out audience of 2000 people at The Odyssey Arena in Belfast and has since toured China, America and the UK. Stephen continues to work with the show as acting musical director.
In 2014 Stephen appeared in an Irish big screen film, ‘Jimmys Hall’ , directed by the legendary Ken Loach, the film was released in cinemas worldwide, Stephen featured playing Melodeon in the film.
In 2015 Stephen was commissioned to compose a 15 minute piece of music for the CRN Irish Dance World Championships awards ceremony. 2015 also seen Stephen out on tour for various concerts with singing legends Sean & Dolores Keane and a guest appearance with We Banjo 3 in France.
In 2016 Stephen recorded, produced and played on renowned singer Sean Keane’s new album ‘New Day Dawning’.
As an in demand front of house sound engineer Stephen has mixed well known acts such as We Banjo Three, Luka Bloom and Aldoc.
Currently Stephen continues to tour as member of The Sean Keane Band alongside various concerts with his new group ‘Blás’. His recent recordings include a debut album with Blás and also a new duo album alongside harpist Seána Davey which features many compositions written by Stephen. Other recent recording sessions by Stephen include performing on the new albums of Sean Keane, Nathan Carter and Derek Ryan. He now also works alongside Mayo/Vec Music Generation and The Mayo School of Music teaching Music throughout Mayo, and is involved in various recording projects and stage productions.
Critically acclaimed as an“effortless musician”, he features on a long list of musical recordings. Stephen is a multi-instrumentalist, playing Flute, Whistle, Accordion, Guitar, Piano and Bodhrán, and performs regularly on the
Sean-Nós dancing and céilí scene fronting The Salamanca Ceili Band.
In the past few years he has shared the stage with artists like, Lúnasa, Sean Keane, Dolores Keane, We Banjo 3, Dougie MacLean, Michael McGoldrick, Dermot Byrne, Slide, Sharon Shannon and has had recording sessions in Nashville with Alison Brown and Tim O’Brien. He has performed in over 20 countries to date and has also featured on RTE’s ‘Nationwide’, ‘The Late Late Show’ and ‘The View’ and on TG4′s ‘Geantraí & ‘Hup’ programmes’.