Armagh 13 - 16 November 2008
www.wkpf.org

Tickets are now on sale for all concerts. For events in the Market Place theatre you can contact the Box Office at +44 (0)28 3752 1821 or online at www.marketplacearmagh.com. Tickets for all other events and more information from +44 (0)28 37511248 or info@wkpf.org.
N.B. Tickets for “Festival Concert 1″ (Friday 14th) and ‘Festival Concert 2′ (Saturday 15th) are selling fast so early booking is advisable to avoid disapointment.

An introduction to some of our festival guests…

Bagad Cap Caval (Brittany)

Cap Caval is the former name of the Pays Bigouden, a region in the extreme South-West of Cornouaille, Brittany. This somewhat forgotten place-name was chosen by Denis Daniel in 1984 for his new bagad (pipe band) which he had just founded in Plomeur.
In 24 years of existence the group already has a long and distinguished history. Since its creation, the band has participated in the Championnat National des Bagadou (National Pipe Band Championships). A rapid ascent began in 1994 that saw the band go from grade 3 to grade 1 in the space of two years and since then they have regularly finished in the top five. This year has been their most successful to date winning first place in the Championnat and also winning the grade 2 section of the World Pipe Band Championships in Glasgow. This will be the biggest band to ever play at the festival with 38 members!

Beòlach (Cape Breton)

Beòlach, which is a Scottish Gaelic word meaning ‘lively youth’, is one of Cape Breton’s most exciting young bands. The group performs an energetic mix of Cape Breton, Scottish, and Irish tunes featuring piano, pipes, whistles, guitar, and two fiddles. Beòlach began at an impromptu session at the Celtic Colours Festival in Cape Breton in 1998, and after a strong initial response, has gone on to play festivals throughout North America and Europe. They have thrilled audiences with energetic performances, witty presentation, and their versatility as stepdancers. Cape Breton tunes are removed from their usual fiddle/piano context and presented with the energy of a young five piece band. Although presenting these tunes in a contemporary style, Beòlach maintains a respect and understanding of traditional Cape Breton music.

Caramusa (Corsica)

Driven by a passion for music coupled with a sense of duty, in 1984, Ghjuvan Ghjacumu and Christianu Andreani founded the research organisation E Cetera and the group Caramusa to help prevent something precious from disappearing - Corsican folk music. The time spent sharing magical moments of apprenticeship with the ‘elders’ all over their enigmatic island, collecting songs and melodies from the past, learning to play instruments whose provenance had long-been forgotten, the brothers became committed defenders of an ancient Corsican tradition.
Understanding the importance of the music’s pastoral origins, rooted in ancestral values and beliefs, the sound produced by Caramusa is authentic and inspired. Accomplished musicians, they guide their flutes made from animal horn and reed, their bagpipes of pelt or gourd, plus an array of other instruments with precision and spontaneity.

Dråm (Sweden)

The bagpipe is perhaps not overly associated with Sweden, but the säckpipa has been played there for a very long time indeed and has experienced a popular revival over the last few decades, not the least thanks to the work of groups such as Dråm. Dråm means simply “drone” in a Swedish dialect, an apt name for this talented duo with its fresh and unique take on Nordic music. The musicians, Erik Ask-Upmark and Anna Rynefors, have both received the prestigious Zorn award and the title of Riksspelman (official master musician) for their playing and exposure of the Swedish bagpipes. Joining the duo for the Festival is acclaimed bouzouki player Bert Deivert, one of the first musicians in Sweden to adopt Irish bouzouki playing to Swedish folk music back in the 70s, when he moved to Sweden from the United States. Apart from the Swedish pipes, Dråm’s other instruments include different Swedish folk whistles and the rather unusual Nyckelharpa, a unique Swedish keyed fiddle that never fails to fascinate!

Ivan Georgiev (Bulgaria)

Ivan Georgiev was born in Burgas, Bulgaria in 1976. He graduated from the special High School of Folk Music Filip Kutev in 1995. He went on to graduate from the Academy of Music, Dance and Fine Arts in Plovdiv in 1999 specialising in the bagpipe and orchestral conducting. He is currently a teacher there and performs with the National Representative Orchestra of the Academy. Ivan has been on tours all over the world with the renowned Bulgarian women’s choir “The Mystery of Bulgarian Voices” and also as accompanist to the vocal quartet Slavei. Following impromptu performances at last William Kennedy Piping Festival, Ivan was invited to accompany Theodosii Spassov on his recent tour of the USA.

Anxo Lorenzo & Xosé Liz de Cea (Galicia)

Anxo Lorenzo from Moaña, a small village on the Atlantic Coast of Galicia, is a new breed of musician who sees no barriers when experimenting with traditional and contemporary music and has the ability of seamlessly amalgamating the two using vibrant, fresh new melodies and rhythms. Anxo has managed to fuse the traditional sound of the gaita (Galician Bagpipes) with a wide variety of alternative music styles such as rock, pop, jazz, flamenco, chill out, hip-hop and electronica… converting the gaita into a truly avant-garde instrument without giving-up his celtic roots. Anxo will be joined by long-term collaborator Xosé Liz de Cea on bouzouki, guitar and flauta.

Luigi Lai (Sardinia)

Luigi Lai needs very little introduction to Armagh audiences. His first visit to the William Kennedy in 1995 was a veritable tour de force and he was accorded a standing ovation at the festival concert in Drumsill Hotel. Luigi comes from a very old piping tradition, perhaps the oldest, as his instrument is pre-bagpipe. The Launeddas has been played in Sardinia for more than 2000 years and occupies a central place in the music of the Mediterranean island. Luigi has been playing all his long life and has taught the instrument to decades of young Sardinian musicians. The launeddas is a mouth blown triple pipes which consists of a chanter playing melody, another chanter playing counterpoint and a single drone.

Pere Joan & Manel Martorell (Mallorca)

The Martorell brothers, Pere Joan and Manel have been active in the traditional dance festivals in the villages of Mallorca since they were very young. In 1993 they made their first performance as musicians at La Real festival, and since then they have become an established duo, performing regularly both in Mallorca and abroad. They have been members of a number of groups playing traditional Majorcan music, including Voramar, The Xeremiers (pipers) of Son Roca, and Al-Mayurqa, and they have featured on a number of CDs released by these groups. They play a variety of different traditional instruments including Mallorcan bagpipes, pipe and tabor, guitarró, llaut and arxillaut.

Patrick Molard, Jacky Molard and Jean-Michel Veillon (Brittany)

A unique line-up comprising three of the most revered names on the Breton musical scene - Jean-Michel Veillon on flute and bombarde; Patrick Molard on Scottish pipes and Breton biniou; and Jacky Molard on fiddle. These three famous musicians have indelibly left their mark on the development of Breton music over the last 35 years. Between them, they have been involved with groups such as Gwerz, Den, Barzaz, Kornog, Pennoù Skoulm, Alain Genty group, Toud ‘Sames, Jacky Molard Acoustic Quartet, Jacques Pellen’s Celtic Procession, Alan Stivell and Dan Ar Braz. They have also collaborated with musicians from other parts of the world including Okay Temiz and Marzoug (previous visitors to the festival from Algeria). Their performance at the festival will feature a repertoire mainly inspired by traditional Breton music not often heard on Irish stages.

Giancarlo Parisi (Sicily)

Giancarlo was born in Messina but has been living in Catania since 2005. He began his musical activity as a composer and director of theatre music and went on to become a major figure on the Italian jazz scene as a saxophonist. In 1992 he released his first solo album L’Otre Di Eolo, followed in ‘93 by Giancarlo Parisi. In 1997 he participated in and won the Folkcontest di Casale Monferrato and went on to participate in the same year in the Festival Interceltique di Lorient (Brittany). In 1998 he joined ranks with The Chieftains, with whom he performed as soloist along with l’Orchestra del Tetro Massimo di Palermo in the Teatro di Verdura and went on to record on the album Natale a Roma released by BMG. In 2003 he collaborated with the drummer Stewart Copland from The Police, the arranger Vittorio Cosma and the English percussion quartet Ensemble Bash for the production of the show La notte della taranta by Melpignano and the subsequent CD.
He has developed and patented a “chromatic” model of the zampogna so that, like the ancient diatonica, this fairly inaccessible instrument is now opened up to previously unthinkable musical languages and possibilities.

Tejedor (Asturias)

Tejedor is composed of three siblings from Avilés, a town in the northernmost Spanish region of Asturias. The group members, although still in their twenties, have devoted their lives to Asturian traditional music and now are writing their own, personal sounding compositions. They are José Manuel (Asturian bagpipes, low whistle and flutes), his brother Javier (button accordion, bagpipe, percussion and flutes) and their sister Eva Tejedor (traditional percussion and vocals). Both brothers won MacCallan bagpipe awards at the Inter Celtic Festival in Lorient as well as winning all-Asturian prizes as a bagpipe and drum duo. Eva, for her part, is an exceptional singer and percussionist. The group will be playing alongside local group Buille as part of the Ireland/Asturias Project which premiered at this years Kilkenny Arts Festival.

Festival Highlights
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Thurs 13th Nov - 19.30
Market Place Theatre
“Duets concert”
- Robbie Hannan & Dermot McLaughlin
- Brian McNamara & Tim Collins
- Seán McKeon & Liam O’Connor
- Jarlath Henderson & Ross Ainslie
- Members of the Armagh Pipers Club
Tickets £9/£7 (available from the Market Place Theatre)
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Friday 14th Nov - 17.00
Market Place Theatre
“A World of Piping 1 – Islands of the Mediterranean”
- Luigi Lai (Sardinia)
- Giancarlo Parisi (Sicily)
- Pere Joan & Manel Martorell (Mallorca)
- Caramusa (Corsica)
Tickets £6 (available from the Market Place Theatre)
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Friday 14th Nov - 20.00
Market Place Theatre
“Festival Concert 1”
- Lúnasa featuring Kevin Crawford, Sean Smyth, Cillian Vallely, Paul Meehan & Trevor Hutchinson
- Beòlach featuring Wendy MacIsaac, Mairi Rankin, Ryan MacNeil, Mac Morin & Patrick Gillis (Cape Breton)
- Bagad Cap Caval (Brittany)
- Allan MacDonald (Scotland)
Tickets £15/£12/£10 (available from the Market Place Theatre)
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Saturday 15th Nov - 14.00
St. Patrick’s Church of Ireland Cathedral
- Liam O’Flynn & Catherine Ennis
- Dråm featuting Erik Ask-Upmark, Anna Rynefors & Bert Deivert (Sweden)
- Luigi Lai (Sardinia)
Tickets £10/£8 (available from this address or by ringing +44 (0)28 37511248)
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Saturday 15th November - 16.30
St. Patrick’s Trian
“A World of Piping 2”
- Anxo Lorenzo & Xosé Liz de Cea (Galicia)
- Patrick Molard (Brittany)
- Ivan Georgiev (Bulgaria)
- Andy May (Northumberland)
Tickets £6 (available from this address or by ringing +44 (0)28 37511248)
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Saturday 15th Nov - 20.00
Market Place Theatre
“Festival Concert 2”
- “Ireland/Asturias Project” featuring Tejedor (Jose Manuel, Javier and Eva Tejedor), Buille (Niall & Caoimhín Vallely, Paul Meehan & Brian Morrissey), Cormac Breatnach, Cillian Vallely and Trevor Hutchinson
- Patrick Molard, Jackie Molard and Jean Michel Veillon (Brittany)
- At First Light featuring John McSherry, Donal O’Connor, Alan Burke, Francis McIlduff & Rubén Bada
Tickets £15/£12/£10 (available from the Market Place Theatre)
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Sunday 16th November - 14.00
Market Place Theatre
“A World of Piping 3”
- The Jarlath Henderson/Ross Ainslie Trio (Ireland/Scotland)
- Na Tri Seudan featuring Fin Moore, Angus MacKenzie, Angus Nicolson & Calum MacCrimmon (Scotland)
- Beòlach (Cape Breton)
- Anxo Lorenzo & Xosé Liz de Cea (Galicia)
- Ivan Georgiev (Bulgaria)
Tickets £6 (available from the Market Place Theatre)
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Sunday 16th Nov - 19.30
Market Place Theatre
“Uilleann Pipes Concert”
- Ronan Browne
- Mick & John O’Brien
- John McSherry & Francis McIlduff
- Brian McNamara
- Tiarnán Ó Duinnchinn
- Jimmy O’Brien Moran
Tickets £10/£8 (available from the Market Place Theatre)
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Further Information and full programme details at www.wkpf.org.
Or visit www.myspace.com/williamkennedypipingfestival to listen to some of the artists and leave a message.