With the seemingly rapid growth of traditional-style Celtic music in the local area, it is hard to know which came first—the fiddle or the tune. But no matter, listeners and players alike are responding to the upswing in offerings.

A significant contributor to this growth is the development of an Irish Music Department at Indian Hill Music School in Littleton. More than providing a range of classes, ensembles, and performances, the department is bringing many of the Boston area' s talented musicians together, making Indian Hill a synergistic umbrella for Celtic music west of Boston.

Indian Hill Music School Program Director Michael Havay explained how the new Irish Department evolved from its beginning, when two faculty members, guitarist Jamie Dunphy and flutist Eileen Yarrison, started the well-received Celtic Band in 2005. In 2007, the school added its first teacher of Irish traditional style, fiddler Laurel Martin. The same year, with help from professional music organizer Aisling Keating, the school year opened with celebratory Celtic Barn Dance.

"We had a huge turnout for the event and everyone enjoyed themselves so thoroughly, I couldn't help but wonder if we should explore more opportunities to offer Irish music at the Music School," Havay said.

Havay credited Keating and Martin with playing pivotal roles in the department's development. Martin, who studied traditional music with Seamus Connolly, 10-time winner of the Irish National Fiddle Championship, has played and taught in the Boston area for many years. Keating organizes and coordinates all styles of music, but her primary focus is Celtic music. Between the two, they have extensive connections with the traditional-style music community.

Martin is now chairwoman of the Irish Music Department, which has grown to include Flynn Cohen, (guitar, mandolin, banjo), Eoin McQuinn (bodhran), and Elizabeth Simmons (voice.)

The heart of traditional Irish music is the session. This reporter's first experience with Irish music was in an Irish pub in Dublin. The convivial atmosphere, helped along by dark drafts and hot whiskeys, was inviting on a cold, rainy night. But, more intoxicating than the front bar was the backroom session, a gathering of musicians playing, learning, and listening to traditional Irish music. These were musicians playing for their fellow musicians, not for the scattering of quiet listeners around them. Speaking to the personal pleasure of session playing, Belfast musician Gerry McCartney wrote, "Applause is merely the icing for an already eaten cake."

Martin leads Indian Hill's weekly Thursday night Sessions on the Hill. Until the December closing of J.P. O'Hanlons Irish Pub in Ayer, she and Keating joined with other area musicians and met there every Wednesday night for a public session—the Groton Irish Session. Keating, a native Dubliner, started the Groton Irish Sessions, originally in Groton, to continue the tradition she missed away from home.

The Groton Irish Session has recently reconvened down the street at the Billiards Café, still on Wednesdays. Any musician with an intermediate knowledge of a traditional instrument—fiddle, tin whistle, mandolin, bodhran, bones—may join in. What may seem spontaneous does have its own etiquette. Listeners are always welcome. Musicians who want to join in are expected to tune their instruments and have some knowledge of the music. Guitars and drums other than the bodhran are not included. Bodhran and bones play together, but duplicate percussion instruments in the same piece are not encouraged.

Events at Indian Hill this Saturday will be evidence of the school's role in bringing Irish music to the area.

An Irish Festival from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. will include an hour of Irish stories and songs with Kate Cahdbourne, a family social dance, or ceili, with Irish step-dancers and music by Martin, and Irish songs for families with Liz Simmons. Afternoon workshops on fiddle, flute, guitar, uilleann pipes, and bodhran will be followed at 4 p.m. by a traditional Irish session open to all instrumentalists. The student workshops are $10, but all other events are free.

Saturday night, Maestro Bruce Hangen will conduct Indian Hill Orchestra in a concert of Irish traditional and classical music with guest musician Shannon Heaton, flute; Flynn Cohen, guitar; Eoin McQuinn, bodhran; and Michael Cooney, uilleann pipes. Brian O' Donovan, host of WGBJ's Celtic Sojourn, will narrate the American premiere of "Island Wedding Suite" by Charlie Lennon. Havay cites the orchestra and Irish department collaboration as "one of those moments of synergy that occurred because of the unique qualities of our organization, and having performers and educators who are motivated to work and create together."

Plenty of cake and a chance for icing.