| About the Artists:
Native Irishman Brian
O'Donovan hosts the WGBH radio production of A Celtic Sojourn,
a weekly exploration of traditional and contemporary music from the Celtic
countries and England.
Born in Clonakilty, West
Cork, Ireland, O'Donovan is a musician who enjoys listening to many different
forms of music, including rock, folk, classical, opera, and country.
Danú (Accent over
the u and pronounced Daan-oo)
This young, traditional
Irish band has quickly shot to the top of the scale when it comes to excellent
quality music, song and entertainment. The seven piece band performs
Irish traditional music with a skill and sizzle that has captured the imagination
and loyalty of fans worldwide.
All under age 30, the Waterford-based
septet "make a most exciting and highly musical sound that stirs the blood
and lifts the heart," according to Dublin's Irish Music magazine, which
named Danú the "The Best Overall Traditional Act 1999" at the Irish
Music Magazine awards, a competition which included all the artists involved
in Irish music today. They have established themselves throughout Europe
and America, with regular performances in Boston, Dublin, London and New
York. FMI: http://www.danu.net
Tony McManus
John Renbourn, the founder
of Pentangle and himself a veritable institution in folk music called Tony
McManus, "The best Celtic guitarist in the world." BBC Radio Scotland
called him "The finest guitarist Scotland has ever produced."
To find a unique voice on
so ubiquitous an instrument as the acoustic guitar is quite an achievement.
To do so within a centuries old idiom where the instrument has no real
history is truly remarkable. In little over ten years as a professional
musician, Tony McManus has come to be recognised throughout the world as
the leading guitarist in Celtic Music. From early childhood his twin obsessions
of traditional music and acoustic guitar have worked together to produce
a startlingly original approach to this ancient art. In Tony’s hands
the complex ornamentation normally associated with fiddles and pipes are
accurately transferred to guitar in a way that preserves the integrity
and emotional impact of the music. FMI: http://www.tonymcmanus.com
Natalie Haas
"Haas can make her instrument
sound like the drone of a hurdy-gurdy, the jangle of a guitar, or the thump
of a string bass, and she can carry the tune of fast jigs and reels as
well." --Robert Dawson Scott, The Times
Vibrant young cellist Natalie
Haas is already a seasoned performer, recording artist, and teacher. Over
the past four years, she has joined master Scottish fiddler Alasdair Fraser
for festival and concert appearances in Scotland, Spain, France, and throughout
the U.S., including Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow, Scotland, the
Festival Interceltique de Lorient in France, and the Smithsonian Folklife
Festival in Washington, D.C. "People may be familiar with the gorgeous,
melodic cello sound," says Fraser, "but they're surprised to learn that
the cello used to comprise the rhythm section in Scottish dance bands.
Natalie Haas unleashes textures and deep, powerful rhythms that drive fiddle
tunes. We can 'duck and dive' around each other, swap melody and harmony
lines, and improvise on each other's rhythmic riffs. She has such a great
sense of exploration and excitement for the music; it's a joy to play with
her!"
A recent graduate of the
Juilliard School in New York City, Natalie discovered the cello at age
nine. In addition to having extensive classical music training, she is
accomplished in a broad array of fiddle genres. Her musical journey found
purpose when she fell in love with Celtic music at the Valley of the Moon
Scottish Fiddling School at age 11. Inspired and encouraged by director
Fraser, she began to investigate the cello's potential for rhythmic accompaniment
to fiddle tunes. Her new duo release(with Fraser,) Fire & Grace,
was awarded the Best Album of the Year in the Scots Traditional Music Awards
2004. FMI: http://www.nataliehaas.com
Navan is a vocal harmony
group based in Madison, Wisconsin who endeared themselves to New England
through their participation in the very first A Christmas Celtic Sojourn
with Brian O'Donovan in 2003. Since then, the now three-piece group
has honed its skills in creating stunning harmonies and learning new repertoire.
Here is what they say about themselves:
We are friends who have
come together to share our love of Celtic music among ourselves, and with
others. We have a special feeling for those beautifully worded songs and
poems whose tunes have been lost—there are so many. We also enjoy songs
which have been carried on in traditional form to the present day. Sometimes
we sing them solo, in the manner most often used today by traditional singers
who have inherited them; sometimes we sing them in unison, following the
traditional rhythm as best we can together; sometimes we can’t help but
add harmonies—that is part of our own tradition.
Celtic songs have proven
to have great vitality and so the same songs have been sung for hundreds
if not thousands of years. This naturally results in variation of the tune,
and words, from age to age and place to place. Sometimes we incorporate
several variations of a tune into one song, for example singing some verses
in the sean-nós style, and others in the exuberant rhythms of an
early American hymn which that sean-nós tune has inspired.
We sing in the languages
of Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Brittany, Cornwall and the Isle of Man.
Several of us have been studying the Irish language for some years now.
To help those who were new to this and the other languages in which we
sing, we devised a phonetic spelling system to get us started. We switched
over to using the true spellings as we became more familiar with them.
FMI: http://www.navan.org
Nua-nós
means “new style” in the Irish language. It’s a playful reference
to the term “sean-nós,” which means “old style” and is used to describe
the percussive step dance style from the West of Ireland. The performing
group Nua-nós brings a fresh new interpretation to Irish sean-nós
dancing as well as other step dance styles. The group’s six members
met at the University of Limerick, Ireland in 2004. Among them, they
perform traditional and original dances from Ireland, Scotland, America,
and Canada. Nua-nós combines the integrity of deep-rooted
traditional music and dance with a compelling group dynamic and unstoppable
sense of fun that takes old-style step dancing from the old world into
the new. Nua-nós performers are:
-
Brent Chaisson (Prince Edward
Island, Canada), fiddle, guitar, piano, Cape Breton dance
-
Kieran Jordan (Boston, Mass.),
Irish traditional, sean-nós, Cape Breton dance
-
Maldon Meehan (Limerick, Ireland),
sean-nós and Cape Breton dance
-
Mats Melin (Angus, Scotland),
sean-nós, Scottish, Cape Breton dance
-
Mylene Ouellette (Prince Edward
Island, Canada), piano and Cape Breton dance
-
Ronan Regan (Galway, Ireland),
fiddle, sean-nós, Cape Breton dance
Telecharge: 1-800/233-3123
MajesTix Groups:
617/824-8000
Specific Needs:
617/824-8000
TTY: 1-888-889-8587
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