Becoming a professional Irish musician

At just 16 years old, Adrienne O’Shea is already working towards her dream of becoming a professional Irish musician. She plays the wooden flute, tin whistle and piano, and is also an extremely talented singer. Adrienne is in a few ensembles through The Center For Irish Music in St. Paul and she has also been in a band in several professional Irish dance shows such as “The Celtic Holiday Hooley” and “Kickin’ It Irish”.

“It’s helped me meet a ton of people that like even though we live on different parts of the globe we’re always gonna end up running into each other or meeting each other or playing with each other and I think that’s gonna build such a great community for me as I try and do this in the real world,” Adrienne said.

Adrienne has competed in both music and dance competitions around the globe, which has awarded her lots of friendships and connections which will prove beneficial in the future as she builds her blossoming career as an Irish musician.

“Having my dad being a musician too and helping me makes those connections and meet people has prepared me for this disaster of an undertaking” said Adrienne with a laugh.

Adrienne’s father, Cormac O’se, is a world renouned accordion player. He travels worldwide to play at Irish dance competitions and sometimes brings Adrienne with him which has given her the opportunity to make beneficial connections.

“Most of his [Cormac’s] music is really intertwined with the dancing because he plays for dance competitions and stuff. His music has not been like performance based, its all been surrounding the dancing which I think is really cool but I think I want there to be a certain separation for me. I want to be a dance teacher when I need to be a teacher and run my school but also I want to be able to go and tour for a couple weeks and play independently once and a while but then combine music and dance when I need to,” Adrienne said.