Galway, with Anders Trabjerg and Mayo Yanachi

About the episode

Danish Accordion player Anders Trabjerg first came to Galway in the 1990s because of his deep interest in Irish Traditional music. There he met Japanese fiddler Mayo Yanachi, who had come for the same reason, and today they are a married couple with two kids. For many years now, they have been working as professional musicians in the city’s vibrant music scene.

I’ve been friends with Anders and Mayo for a long time, and it’s always nice to visit them and their lovely family whenever I’m in town!

In this conversation we talk about how they both decided to move to Ireland, about their first encounters with the music and the culture, they explain how their gigs as session hosts in the pubs of Galway works, we reflect on the role of Irish traditional music in Irish society today, we discuss the role that institutions have in music education and how they manage to combine family life with both being gigging musicians.