Oona Grady

Oona Grady (she/her) is a musician and educator living in Saratoga Springs, New York.  She performs with the duo Drank The Gold, a band specializing in creative arrangements of traditional Irish and American fiddle music, folk songs, and original compositions, as well as other projects including The Grady Girls and StepTune.

Her educational interests, rooted in Suzuki philosophy, are focussed on developing new approaches to fiddle and folk music pedagogy.  Oona maintains a private music studio and is a founding teacher of the Caffe Lena School of Music.  She also works as a guest instructor for weekend workshops and summer programs, including GrassRoots Culture Camp, The Flurry Festival, and Winter Village Music Camp.

Oona grew up in Ithaca, NY, nurtured by a family and community with a deep love of music.  Aided by Suzuki violin and Irish fiddle lessons, she began performing with her family band as a teenager, and moved to Ireland at age eighteen to continue her music studies at University College Cork, graduating with a B.Mus. in 2008.  With a lifelong passion for learning, Oona continues to develop new music skills—including bass, singing, and Norwegian hardanger fiddle—which inform her inspired approach to both teaching and performing.