Peter McKenna is a fast-emerging young piping talent from Augher, Co. Tyrone. A five-time All-Ireland champion on uilleann pipes, Peter’s music is heavily influenced by master pipers such as Paddy Keenan, Padraig McGovern and Tiarnán Ó Duinnchinn, the latter who taught him at the Armagh Pipers Club where he learned to ply his trade. He has made numerous television and radio appearances on programmes such as Hup!, Geantraí, Fleadh TV, Céilí House and Raidió na Gaeltachta and heavily featured in a BBC documentary on the 2013 All-Ireland Fleadh in Derry.
No stranger to performing, Peter has played as a solo artist at music festivals throughout Ireland, Europe and for audiences across New York last year with his family for the St. Patrick’s Day celebrations including for then Taoiseach Michael Martin and global ambassadors to the United Nations. Other festivals being the Padraig O’Keefe Festival, NPU’s piping Tionóls, Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy and headlined the Cailin Rua Pipes at the Padua Festival in Italy in 2023 (Italy). He is a guest artist in his sister Sinéad McKenna’s debut album ‘Faoi Lán Ceoil’ (2024).
Currently residing in Belfast, He is an active member of Comharchumann Píobaireachta Béal Feirste having both taught and performed as a guest piper. He has performed across the city at numerous prestigious events in venues such as the Waterfront Hall, Belfast City Hall, Queens University and St. Mary’s University College for International Uilleann Piping Day where he studies primary teaching. He has been key to establishing ‘Piping Trad’ a weekly piping session every Sunday and hosts a mid-week session both in the well-established cultural hub Madden’s Bar.
