A musical lifetime — teaching, playing and writing
Looking back at the life of well-known musician Matt Cunningham
UNLIKE most other entertainers who only sing or play, veteran musician Matt Cunningham, who has been entertaining fans for well over half a century, has another string to his bow as he has also been teaching music for 40 years. He has also written 127 new tunes, jigs, reels and waltzes.
As well as playing at céilí dances all over the country, and abroad, Matt teaches primary and secondary schoolchildren the accordion, fiddle, banjo, flute and tin whistle. But he told The Tuam Herald that he only learned to play the tin whistle by accident and after an accident!
“I’ve been playing the accordion since I was four or five on a 180-year-old Club Model 2 accordion handed down to me from my grandfather William Cunningham who lived in Woodquay, Galway. But playing the tin whistle, and subsequently teaching it, happened definitely by accident — an accident on a street in Headford,” laughed Matt.
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