Mick Moloney combines the careers of professional musician, musicologist, record producer, teacher, arts presenter, consultant and advocate. He holds an M.A. in Economics and Politics from University College Dublin and a Ph.D. in Folklore and Folklife from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Moloney has taught at the University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown University, Boston College, Villanova University and New York University.

He published Far From the Shamrock Shore: The Story of Irish American History Through Song (Random House, 2002) and an accompanying CD on Shanachie Records. Dr. Moloney has recorded and produced over fifty albums of traditional music, and for over twenty-five years, has acted as advisor for scores of festivals and concerts all over the United States. Dr. Moloney has served on National Endowment for the Arts panels and task forces on folk, minority and community arts. As a member of the Florida Folklife Bureau, he served as an advisor to the Governor of Florida on state cultural policy. He also served as the Artistic Director for several major national and international arts tours including The Green Fields of America. He directed and coordinated major American multicultural dance festivals that toured West Africa and South and Central America under the auspices of the United States Information Agency.

Dr. Moloney has hosted, consulted, musically arranged and/or performed in numerous television and film productions, including Irish Television’s Bringing It All Back Home, the PBS documentary film Out of Ireland, and the 1998 PBS special The Irish in America: Long Journey Home. In 1999, he was awarded the National Heritage Award from the National Endowment for the Arts–the highest official honor a traditional artist can receive in the United States.