Séamus Egan is an Irish

Irish people

The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...

 musician.

Early days

Séamus Egan was born in Hatboro, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

 to Irish émigrés Jack and Ann Egan. At the age of three his parents moved the family back home to County Mayo

County Mayo

County Mayo is a county in Ireland. It is located in the West Region and is also part of the province of Connacht. It is named after the village of Mayo, which is now generally known as Mayo Abbey. Mayo County Council is the local authority for the county. The population of the county is 130,552...

, Ireland

Republic of Ireland

Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...

.

He learned accordion

Accordion

The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....

 from Martin Donaghue. He saw Matt Molloy

Matt Molloy

Matt Molloy is an Irish musician, from a region known for producing talented flautists. As a child, he began playing the flute and won the All-Ireland Flute Championship at only seventeen years old...

 and James Galway

James Galway

- External links : IMGArtists.com 15 September 2008. AllAboutJazz.com 5 August 2008.*...

 on television and suddenly decided to take up the Irish flute

Irish flute

The term Irish Flute refers to a conical-bore, simple-system wooden flute of the type favored by classical flautists of the early 19th century, or to a flute of modern manufacture derived from this design...

. Seamus won the all-Ireland championship on four different instruments by the time he was 14.

Later work

When Mick Moloney

Mick Moloney

Michael "Mick" Moloney is a traditional Irish musician and scholar. Born in Limerick, County Limerick, he was an important figure on the Dublin folk-song revival in the 1960s. In 1973, he moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania...

 founded Green Fields of America

Green Fields of America

The Green Fields of America is an ensemble which performs and promotes Irish traditional music in the United States."The Green Fields of America" was formed in 1978 in Philadelphia and still led by musician and folklorist Mick Moloney. The band was created to present and tour some of Irish...

 in 1977, Seamus joined up and took lessons from Mick on the banjo

Banjo

In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...

. Two years later he returned to Ireland and won the All-Ireland championship on banjo and mandolin. In 1985 he recorded a solo album Traditional Music Of Ireland.

In 1992 he joined Susan McKeown

Susan McKeown

Susan McKeown is an Irish songwriter, folk singer and producer.-Early years:Susan McKeown was born on February 6, 1967 to John Ryan and Jane Ann McKeown in Terenure, Dublin, Ireland. She was greatly influenced by her mother, an organist and composer who died in 1982...

's band The Chanting House and appeared on a live album

Live album

A live album is a recording consisting of material recorded during stage performances using remote recording techniques, commonly contrasted with a studio album...

 with them. Eileen Ivers

Eileen Ivers

Eileen Ivers is an Irish-American musician.Eileen Ivers was born in New York City of Irish-born parents and grew up in the Bronx. She spent summers in Ireland and took up the fiddle at the age of nine. Her teacher was the Irish fiddler Martin Mulvihill. She toured with Mick Moloney's band The...

 was also a member of the band. In 1994 he founded Solas and has been on every one of their albums. In 1995 he recorded music for the quirky low-budget film The Brothers McMullen

The Brothers McMullen

The Brothers McMullen is a 1995 American comedy-drama film directed, written, produced by, and starring Edward Burns. It deals with the lives of the three Irish Catholic McMullen brothers from Long Island, New York, over three months, as they grapple with basic ideas and values — love, sex,...

, directed by Edward Burns

Edward Burns

Edward Fitzgerald Burns is an American actor, film producer, writer and director.-Early life:Burns was born in Woodside, Queens, New York, the son of Molly , a federal agency manager, and Edward J. Burns, a public relations spokesman and police officer. He was raised a Roman Catholic...

. He also co-wrote the hit "I Will Remember You

I Will Remember You (Sarah McLachlan song)

"I Will Remember You" is a song written by Sarah McLachlan, Séamus Egan and Dave Merenda. The song first appeared on the soundtrack to the movie The Brothers McMullen in 1995, and was featured on her remix album Rarities, B-Sides and Other Stuff...

" with Sarah McLachlan

Sarah McLachlan

Sarah Ann McLachlan, OC, OBC is a Canadian musician, singer and songwriter. Known for her emotional ballads and mezzo-soprano vocal range, as of 2006, she has sold over 40 million albums worldwide. McLachlan's best-selling album to date is Surfacing, for which she won two Grammy Awards and four...

.

Egan is also the producer for Solas and has worked as producer for other artists, including American singer-songwriter Antje Duvekot

Antje Duvekot

Antje Duvekot is a singer-songwriter and guitarist based in Somerville, Massachusetts. holds three top songwriting awards, including the Kerrville New Folk Competition's Best New Folk Award, Boston Music Award for Outstanding Folk Act and Grand Prize in the John Lennon Songwriting...

.

Family

He has a younger sister named Rory who is a very good concertina

Concertina

A concertina is a free-reed musical instrument, like the various accordions and the harmonica. It has a bellows and buttons typically on both ends of it. When pressed, the buttons travel in the same direction as the bellows, unlike accordion buttons which travel perpendicularly to it...

 player. She graduated from St. Francis Xavier University

St. Francis Xavier University

St. Francis Xavier University is a post-secondary institution located in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. The school was founded in 1853, but did not offer degrees until 1868. The university has approximately 5000 students.-History:...

 in Antigonish, Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

.
He has another sister named Siobhan who was the chief fiddle player in Cherish the Ladies for many years.

Solo albums

• Traditional Music Of Ireland (1985)
• A Week In January (1990)
• The Brothers McMullen (Soundtrack) (1995)
• When Juniper Sleeps (1996)
• Celtic Tapestry (1999)

With Solas

• Solas (1996)
• Summer Spells and Scattered Showers (1997)
• The Words That Remain (1998)
• The Hour Before Dawn (2000)
• The Edge of Silence (2002)
• Another Day (2003)
• Waiting for an Echo (2005)
• Reunion-A Decade of Solas (CD/DVD) (2006)
• For Love and Laughter (2008)
• The Turning Tide (2010)

External links

• irishphiladelphia.com Interview