Music cares not a whit about the players' birthdays; Siobhán Long hears a unique creativity evolving from the entwining of generations.

If George Bernard Shaw was right and youth is, in fact, wasted on the young, then what about wisdom and experience? Is it squandered on those who have accumulated the years beneath their belts? This year's 10th Bealtaine Festival, which celebrates creativity in older age, seeks to explore that meeting of youth and age in all manner of unpredictable ways.

Music thrives in sessions. Session musicians and listeners care not a whit about the players' accumulation of birthdays; what matters is the twist and turn of a tune. It's in the entwining of generations that the music develops, cosseted from the past into the present by a slew of attentive surrogate parents, young and old.

All this month, a host of traditional music events is taking place across the country, celebrating the creative energy that's swapped nightly between musicians. Ben Lennon is a north Leitrim fiddler from Kiltyclogher, whose musical excursions have seen him pair up with his brother, Charlie, for a CD entitled Lucky In Love, gather round the hearth with three fellow musicians, in the curiously-christened group, Dog Big Dog Little, as well as releasing two recordings with his family and friends, Dúchas Ceoil and The Natural Bridge.

Lennon's a man who's been lauded for his ability to "think young", and ignore the ageing process. He might have been happy to learn the tunes from his parents, but when it came to ownership, he was unapologetic about his desire to sign his own set of deeds to the tradition.

"I always wanted to make it my own," he admits, laughing. "Of course I was influenced, and wanted to be influenced by others, but I didn't simply want to copy what I heard. I had my own approach, and I held on to that over the years. But what my mother taught me was time-keeping: not to be in a hurry, to take your time over the note, to hold on to it for as long as you can, and don't part with it until the very last second!"

Lennon believes his mother's sage advice was the lynchpin that rooted his playing throughout his life, and a gem that too few younger musicians care to recognise.

"We have a lot of technicians in the country, but very few musicians. Technical ability is fine, but you have to be able to bring the music out from the soul. That's what it's really all about."

Soul is hardly a commodity that's readily dispensed, even by the hardiest of musicians. Ben Lennon admits that this X factor too often proves elusive to younger musicians, unless they're prepared to expend time and energy in its pursuit.

"It's very difficult to teach, but I'm doing my best," he says. "German students ask me to explain what I am doing, and they want me to write an equation on the board! Soul is something each musician has to develop as an individual. If you look at jazz and classical music, and you take Stephan Grappelli and Yehudi Menuhin, you'll see that even though Menuhin was one of the greatest classical fiddlers of all time, he just couldn't get that gypsy thing that Grappelli had."

Dervish's youngest member, south Leitrim fiddler Tom Morrow, is quick to highlight what more experienced players have to offer.

"I think a lot of the music of the older generation sounds deceptively easy," Morrow avers, tentatively. "But when you listen closely, what's there is style, life and the particular twist that the musician puts on it. There are more tunes around nowadays than ever before, but I think it can be easy to write tunes which are complicated, tempo-wise, key-wise, or have strange departures in them, but they can often miss the beauty and simplicity of the older tunes."

Morrow is quick to acknowledge Lennon's influence, even though their experience of playing together has been limited.

"There's a tune Ben played, which I've only played once or twice," he says, "and I asked him about it after the session. To hear the way he did his bowing, and how he turned a part of the tune - I would never have thought of doing that. Small things like that are what make my night. Just to watch him and hear him was a huge bonus for me."

Global success has been a hallmark of Dervish's career path over the past decade. Having played to audiences all over the world, Morrow insists that no amount of remuneration will ever replace the experience of learning from and playing with musicians whose frame of reference is centred on the session, rather than on the audience.

"In some respects, when I saw someone like Ben Lennon coming to a Dervish concert, I was nervous," he confesses, "but I was also proud that he was willing to come in and listen to us. Older musicians can be very protective of the music they've played, but Ben is such an open, warm character that he seems happy to hear the music being carried on. His presence in the audience would certainly spur me on to play as well as I possibly can."

Morrow believes that the real connections musicians make happen over time, and with the benefit of maturity.

"I think that the whole appreciation of older musicians and older music comes with a development of personality more than anything else," he notes.

"No two musicians have the same grá for the older forms of the music. It's something some musicians have in abundance, and others simply want to play more modern music. Certainly any kids I meet, I try to impress upon them the advantages of listening to the older musicians.

"They say that 'the devil is in the detail', and often it's the most subtle touches that distinguish one player's reading of a tune from another."

Seamus Hernon is a young Sligo flute player whose father, accordionist PJ, and mother, bodhrán player and singer, Mai, ensured he was bathed in the tradition from the cradle. He and his mother are guests of the Bealtaine Festival in Sligo, and he's quick to point out the benefits of having more than just his peers as a musical reference point.

"My mother was a huge influence in terms of bringing me to competitions and to play in sessions," he says. "For me, when I listen to older musicians, their versions of tunes are lovely, with notes slipped in here and there. Even players like Matt Molloy, I feel like I've got so much to learn from players like him. There's just nothing to compare with what he does."

• Age and Opportunity promotes the participation of older people in the arts, and coordinates Bealtaine, this month's national festival celebrating creativity in older age. For further information, see www.olderinireland.ie/artsandculture/ bealtaine/ or phone 01-8057704. Mai and Seamus Hernon play at 6.30pm on May 12 in Markievicz House, Sligo (071-9140988); Ben Lennon and Tom Morrow play at 4.30pm, Saturday, May 14 in The Glens Centre, Manorhamilton (071-7855833); and Paddy Ryan and Deirdre McSherry, Nenagh Library, May 19 1pm (067-44852). Admission to all concerts is free