For countless years the legendary Kitty O’Shea’s, a bar at the Hilton & Towers Hotel in Chicago, has been the favourite meeting place for participants of the annual Midwest Band & Orchestra Clinic. It was at this bar that Johan de Meij met Max McKee, from whom he eventually received a commission to write a work based on the folk music of McKee’s Irish forefathers. De Meij immersed himself in the project and received unexpected help when, while purchasing an espresso machine from a neighbour, dis...