www.tickets.ie/flightsoffancy

This summer 11 villages around county Leitrim will resonate with the sounds and sights of music, theatre, dance and spectacle as part of ‘Flights of Fancy’, a unique public art event in which members of the each of the 11 communities are involved in selecting professional performing arts events to come to their area.

Each event is special and unique; some involving premieres or commissioned works, others involving the local community. Art forms as represented are classical music, opera, theatre, outdoor spectacle, world music and traditional Irish music. Of interest to our readers is Voices Of The Outer Hebrides/ Mná Na N-Oileán, a showcase of some of the best Scottish talent which will be highlighted in the folk element of the programme in Leitrim.

The concert will feature Mary Smith (Mairi Nic a’ Ghobhainn), from the Isle of Lewis, who has been for many years one of the great figures of Scots Gàidhlig song. She holds an MBE in recognition of her lifetime’s work. She is also highly regarded as one of Scotland’s leading visual artists. Anna Murray, also from Lewis, is an accomplished singer and piper and has already issued four acclaimed CD’s. She is also a TV presenter and is well-known as an actress on the popular BBC Gáidhlig soap, ‘Machair’.

Julie Fowlis, winner of the BBC Young Traditional Musician of the Year Award for 2008 and a recent visitor to Manorhamilton, is one of the rising young stars of Scottish song and a multi- instrumentalist. She tours internationally with her band (which features Danú’s, Eamonn Doorley on bouzouki) and has two highly-acclaimed albums to her credit. Maeve MacKinnon - another of the rising young stars of Scottish song with a voice that has been described as “achingly beautiful”, her TV and touring concerts cover a wide range of material from Gàidhlig to Irish and Bluegrass. Flights of Fancy, is a public art project administered by Leitrim County Council Arts Office.

For information contact: Kate McCarthy, Leitrim County Council Arts Office on Tel: 071 9621694. Credit Card bookings can be made on 1890 200078 or www.tickets.ie/flightsoffancy