Denis Ryan to host opening show of Celtic Colours International Festival
(Sydney, NS) Denis Ryan, founding member of the influential folk group
Ryan’s Fancy, will host Island to Island: The Cape Breton-Ireland Musical
Bridge, which kicks off the Celtic Colours International Festival this
Friday night in Port Hawkesbury.
“We are so thrilled that Denis has offered to host this show,” says Joella
Foulds, Artistic Director of the Festival. “I was secretly hoping he would
be excited about our Irish contingent, but I had no idea how delighted he
would be to hear who was coming.”
Although many of Celtic Colours audiences aren’t familiar with the names of
most of the Irish artists scheduled to perform at the Festival, Ryan says
they are “household names in Ireland” and represent the “cutting edge of
progressive folk”. And he *is* excited to be able to play a part in this
event.
“To me it’s just great,” says Ryan. “It’s a privilege to be asked to do this
one. Knowing these performers, I don’t think we’d be fortunate enough to get
them all together in Ireland, so this is a rare opportunity to see them all
in one place and playing together.”
The title of the concert, The Cape Breton-Ireland Musical Bridge, refers to
connections made in the early 1990s when Irish fiddler Liz Doherty’s study
of Cape Breton fiddle tradition led to a Cape Breton Festival being arranged
to take place in Cork, Ireland in 1993.
“As it happens,” Foulds explains, “Denis was an important link in the
building of the musical bridge in the first place by making connections for
Liz Doherty in Cape Breton. He comes from the same town as Prof. Mícheál Ó
Súilleabháin and knows him very well, in fact he knows most of our Irish
artists. There’s nobody better than Denis to lead us on this journey.”
The journey starts Friday night, October 9 at the Port Hawkesbury Civic
Centre and continues until Saturday, October 17, wrapping up with Master
Cape Breton Fiddler: A Tribute to Jerry Holland in Sydney. Along the way,
there are 44 concerts and over 250 cultural experience events in communities
all over Cape Breton Island. Tickets are still available for Island to
Island, Master Cape Breton Fiddler and dozens of other concerts, but don’t
wait too long, they are going fast.
Visit www.celtic-colours.com or phone 1-888-355-7744 for information or tickets.
