Katie Geringer - Managing Co-Director. Fiddle and Group Band
A native of Tallahassee, Florida, Katie Geringer has been active in the folk and classical music scene in north Florida since she was a student in high school. She is a graduate of the Florida State University College of Music where she earned a degree in Music Education and a certificate in Violin Performance. Her love of Irish traditional music eventually led her to Limerick, Ireland where she graduated from the University of Limerick with First Class Honors in Irish Traditional Music Performance. While in Ireland, she competed in the 2015 Limerick County Fleadh and received 1st Place in the Senior Division.
After returning to the states, Katie taught public school orchestra and directed the Florida State University Collegiate Irish Ensemble. She has also presented Irish music workshops at the American String Teachers Association national conference and the Florida Music Educators Association convention. She has been a staff member at the Florida State University Summer Music Camps since 2012 where she teaches the fiddle ensembles, conducts violin sectionals, and coaches chamber music.
Katie can be reached at katie@hsoim.org
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Mark Johnson - Managing Co-Director, Guitar and Bodhrán
Mark has played Irish music on guitar, bodhrán, flute and whistle for over 35 years as member of Houston’s eclectic Wyndnwyre. He has played at the North Texas Irish Festival, Houston Highland Games, Mississippi Celtic Festival, the Houston International Festival and with the local medieval ensemble, Istanpitta. He has been a backing guitarist for Skip Healy, Tim Britton and Turlach Boylan. Mark has studied with Irish flute players Chris Norman, Frankie Kennedy, Kevin Crawford and Steph Geramia. He was the featured guitarist on Larry Mallette’s 1998 album, ‘Til Time Is No More and Corrin Evans’ fiddle album The Leakey Otter. Mark has played multiple instruments on five albums with Wyndnwyre and on Christmas Presence, an album of Irish and Celtic Christmas music with harpist Therese Honey.
Mark is a retired Technical Advisor for the Houston office of a major international oil company and has a B.S in Civil Technology from the University of Houston.
Mark can be reached at mark@hsoim.org.
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Larry Mallette - Founding Director, Flute and Whistle
Larry is a fourth-generation Irish-American, great-great grandson of Thomas Farrell and Katherine McKenna Farrell, who left Ireland in 1849. Larry holds both an M.D. degree and a Ph.D. in Physiology from Vanderbilt University. He taught medical school and did medical research for twenty-four years at Baylor College of Medicine. He also served on several medical advisory boards and later practiced Endocrinology privately for twelve years.
Larry has been playing Irish whistles and flutes since 1991. He has performed at the Carolan Harp Festival in Keadue, Co. Roscommon, the Milwaukee Irish Festival, the Mississippi Celtic Festival, the Chicago Celtic Festival, the Houston International Festival, and with The Chieftains at the Winspear Opera House, Dallas. He is a founding member of The Jig Is Up!, Houston’s traditional Irish band. He has released two recording: A Stroll In The Park, a solo flute album of original and traditional tunes and‘Til Time Is No More, an album of traditional Irish and original tunes and Irish songs, on which several top Houston area musicians collaborated, including four other Houston School of Irish Music instructors. He has taught whistle and flute workshops at the North Texas Irish Festival, the Mississippi Celtic Festival and the Summer Acoustic Music Festival in Houston.
You can reach Larry at larry@hsoim.org
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Brian Shaw
Mandolin and Banjo
Brian has played stringed instruments since the early 1980s, including decades of playing rock and blues guitar. He grew up in an extended musical family of bluegrassers who included music in all family gatherings. Brian can be heard playing guitar in recordings by the rock band ‘el smasho’ and mandolin and banjo on recordings by the old time bands ‘ContraDiction’ and ‘The Brazos Bottom Boys’. He has played Irish music for 15 years and is a regular in the Houston and College Station sessions scenes.
In his spare time, Brian Shaw is a professor of Plant Pathology and Microbiology at Texas A&M University. Dr. Shaw conducts research on fungi. He is a professional educator who teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on fungal biology for more than 20 years.
Robert Shaddox, Bodhran, Voice
Robert is an Occupational Therapist by profession and has worked in the rehabilitation of physical disability, psychiatric illness and industrial injury. He is a Certified Ergonomic Assessment Specialist who has given multiple presentations to industry regarding the prevention of repetitive stress and ergonomic injuries. For four years Robert was an Adjunct Professor in the School Occupational Therapy at the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, lecturing to the Schools of Nursing, Orthopedics, and Physical Therapy. More recently he has been an instructor at The O’Flaherty Irish Music Retreat teaching how to prevent musician’s repetitive injuries.
Robert traveled to Cork as a young man and fell in love with the traditional music that was played by his host family. He has been playing Bodhran (the traditional Irish Frame Drum) and singing Irish songs for 25 years. He has studied Bodhran with such nationally known stalwarts such as Anna Colliton, Mark Stone and Albert Alfonso. While at the University of Houston, Robert participated in multiple vocal programs and later studied voice privately with Dr. Housman of the University of Houston and with Dr. Talleyschmit of Houston Baptist University.
Robert was the bodhranist and a vocalist with Houston’s premier traditional Irish band, The Jig Is Up!, for the nine years of its existence. A reviewer of The Jig Is Up’s first album reported that "Robert's voice is pure and controlled and dead on pitch but as natural as a friendly chat on the corner." Robert now plays and sings with Houston’s newest traditional Irish band, “Hup!.
Al Cofrin, Cittern, Guitar, Mandolin
Al served for many years a NASA flight controller for the Shuttle Program, working as a Flight Activities Officer (FAO) in the front room of Mission Control during Shuttle flights. He continues to work on projects involving the International Space Station as a Payloads Integration Engineer.
In addition to his Aerospace engineering degree background, Al holds a BA in Jazz Theory and Composition from the University of Texas, where he also pursued graduate studies at Rice University resulting in the publication of a collection of pre-15th century transcriptions of monophonic songs and dances and a collection of Renaissance dance music. He leads the Houston based medieval ensemble, Istanpitta, which concertizes nationwide.
In addition to his jazz and medieval music pursuits, Al has been involved in Irish and Celtic music in the Houston area for over 15 years. His cittern playing accompanied several solo flute and whistle tracks on Larry Mallette's 1998 CD "'Til Time Is No More." Since 2006 he has been a full time member of the popular Houston Celtic band, Clandestine, which has toured nationwide and in Europe. Al teaches Celtic Mandolin, and Irish Bouzuki/Octave Mandolin to students in the Houston Metro area.