INTERVIEW: Michael Clarke welcomes you into the parlor with Traditional Irish Music
Irish American Heritage Museum, Albany
Photo by Neal Warshaw
“That same warm, comfortable parlor-feel, with that great music. I'm trying to replicate what I felt growing up every time somebody comes in here and plays.”
Recently I had a chance to sit down with Michael Clarke, the Executive Director of the Irish American Heritage Museum in Albany. Michael has an interesting history when it comes to Irish music, and although his career over the last 30 years did not necessarily align with his love of Irish music, his new position certainly does.
Clarke had practiced law for just over 30 years when he made a very conscious decision to steer his life more towards the Irish cultural space.
“The reason why I did so was because my parents are both Irish immigrants who came to this country as young teenagers separately. They met over here. Myself and my brothers were raised in an Irish household where culture and heritage was very important. I started playing Irish music at the age of six, and I still do to this day. It's been very good for me,” reflects Clarke.
“I ended up paying for both college and for law school as a full-time musician in New York City in the 1980s, and it's taken me around the world. When I decided to leave law, I was the managing attorney for a large law firm in midtown Manhattan, and decided to come to the Irish cultural space because I knew what was here. I came to Albany, and this position opened up, and I started working in November of 2024 as executive director of this museum.”
An amazing thing about the museum, other than the exhibits and content, is that there is an intimate performance space within. In fact, when Clarke first arrived, he felt a sense of déjà Vv until he realized that he had been in the room before.
“I realized that I had been in this room many times between 2000 and 2005 when my children were younger. It used to be the Albany Planetarium. There's a brilliant dome, and the acoustics there are just fantastic,” he explains, dispelling any doubts you may have about a museum constructing a top-notch venue.
Since starting in November, Clarke has commenced multiple performance series. There is a monthly traditional folk series where one to two artists come in and perform traditional Irish or folk Irish music. The second series, the “Special Event” series, involves bringing in bigger names in Irish Music.
“We recently had this internationally known artist, her name is Karen Casey—she and her band sell out venues like The Egg. Karen had heard about our small space and was interested in playing here, and this was in between two much larger venues where she was playing,” he notes.
Outside of the concert series and bigger international acts, Clarke also hosts traditional Irish music sessions that are free and open to the public.
“Every two weeks we have eight to 12 musicians coming in, and they are some of the best in the region at fiddles, Ilian pipes, accordions, flutes. They play a ton of fantastic Irish tunes. It's every other Wednesday from 7 to 9, and that's been drawing a large crowd. Plus, it's free.”
As we wrapped up our chat, Clarke relayed to me a story that perfectly sums up how his childhood led him to exactly what he is doing now.
“One of the things that I absolutely love about this space, and the reason why I set it up like a parlor, is the photograph hanging in this space. It's an aerial photograph that was taken around 1973 of my father's birthplace in Ireland. Growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, when retail malls started being built in Long Island, my parents did not want their kids to grow up as ‘mall rats.’ As soon as school was out, they shipped us over to that little farm whose picture is hanging on the wall in this room. We spent the entire summer in Ireland. It was in the parlor in that house as a child where I was playing the accordion. It developed into this incredible love that is driving the music programs that I'm doing here now. That same warm, comfortable parlor-feel, with that great music. I'm trying to replicate what I felt growing up every time somebody comes in here and plays.”
With Michael’s enthusiasm, knowledge and passion for the music, I think that feeling will be very easy for him to replicate.
For more information, visit https://irish-us.org/
