Kieran O'Hare is a highly respected and sought-after performer on the uilleann pipes, concert flute, and tinwhistle. He was born into a musical Irish-American family in Kansas, and he began to play at home while in his early teens, starting on the tinwhistle, and then progressing to the pipes. His first piping teacher was piper and pipemaker Kirk Lynch.

Kieran moved to Dublin, Ireland, in the early 1990s, where he eventually received a degree in Modern History from Trinity College, Dublin. He now resides in Chicago with his wife, the fiddler Liz Knowles.

In 1994, Kieran received the honor of being the first American-born player of Irish music invited to perform in the annual “Ace and Deuce of Piping” concert, held in Ireland’s National Concert Hall. Since then, he has made countless appearances at festivals and concerts in North America, Japan, and Europe.

Kieran has acquired a reputation as an outstanding teacher of Irish music, beginning with the years he spent as a teacher of the pipes at Na Píobairí Uilleann, The Pipers’ Club, in Dublin. Since then, Kieran’s reputation as a teacher has grown, leading to stints at the Willie Clancy Summer School in County Clare, The Swannanoa Gathering (Asheville, North Carolina), Irish Arts Week in East Durham, NY, The Augusta Heritage Festival in Elkins, West Virginia, and at countless other music weekends, pipers’ tionóil and assorted musical gatherings around the country.