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September 29th – October 1st, 2017,
The 21st Annual Celtic Festival and Marketplace mixes Celtic music and magic September 29th through October 1st at the Nevada County Fairgrounds in Grass Valley California, a bucolic setting on 100 acres among giant ponderosa pines. (more…)
July 1st – 9th, 2017
www.scoilsamhraidhwillieclancy.com
Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy and Blas International Summer School of Irish Traditional Music and Dance.
A joint initiative, involving Blas International Summer School of Irish Traditional Music and Dance and Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy, was launched on the 30th November 2016 at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance by Nicholas Carolan, Director Emeritus of the Irish Traditional Music Archive. The Blas Summer School ( June 19th–30th, 2017), located in the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick, is linking up with Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy to offer students an opportunity to extend their immersion in traditional music studies by enrolling in the Dúchas an Cheoil/ Scope of Irish Traditional Music course at the Willie Clancy School. This collaboration will offer students an accredited programme based at the University of Limerick and the Willie Clancy Summer School in Miltown Malbay. (more…)
The Northern Breeze is the debut solo album of Italian flute and whistle player Michel Balatti. Michel is a well known artist in the Italian and European folk scene, due to his career with the Birkin Tree (the foremost Irish music band in Italy) and with the Italian traditional music band I Liguriani, with whom he has toured Europe extensively over the course of the last five years. (more…)
The young traditional music group ‘Dúchas’ from Corofin are the Siansa Gael Linn 2017 winners ! At the Grand Finale concert in the National Concert Hall on Sunday, 2 April 2017, they were selected from among eight finalists of a high standard for this prestigious award. Organized annually by Gael Linn, with support from RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta and Irish Music Magazine, Siansa Gael Linn is a musical highlight on the calendar of young musicians.
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Brace yourself for the wildly virtuosic playing of Darol Anger and his all-star ensemble Republic of Strings on tour from 3rd to 13th May in a fitting climax to Music Network’s Spring 2017 season. Toes are sure to tap as this cutting edge crew whip through a hoedown, a waltz and grooving swing tune in quick succession. Details at musicnetwork.ie.
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Featuring: Seán Clohessy, fiddle, Sean McComiskey, button accordion, tin whistle, Kieran Jordan, dance. With special guests Josh Dukes, bouzouki, guitar, 12-string guitar Matt Mulqueen, piano.
Produced by Kieran Jordan
Cover the Buckle is a new CD of Irish set dances, designed for dance students and dance teachers, as well as tune lovers and tune listeners.
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August 3rd - 6th, 2017
www.ballyshannonfolkfestival.com
Ballyshannon Folk Festival Marquee is back in 2017!
It’s back! The Ballyshannon Folk and Traditional Music Festival marquee in the Market Yard is back in 2017 for its 40th anniversary and already the excitement is mounting. Many of you will remember down through the years the festival marquee hosted a ticker tape of huge names in the Irish music scene, a veritable who’s who with Altan, Matt Molloy, Paul Brady, 4 Men and a Dog, Maura O’Connell, Sean and Dolores Keane, The Black sisters, Mary and Frances, Finbar Furey, ‘The Eleanors’ - Shanley and McEvoy - all stepping up to the microphone in the famous Market Yard Marquee.
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Friday 21 April, 8pm, Ballymaloe Grainstore
www.ballymaloegrainstore.com
Hermitage Green return to Ballymaloe Grainstore on Friday 21 April for another high-energy standing gig.
Formed in 2010 as a result of a spontaneous jam session between friends, 2016 was Hermitage Green’s biggest year yet and there is no sign of the band’s momentous growth slowing down.
Signing to Sony Records Ireland, their debut studio album ‘Save Your Soul’ was released last year to huge chart success. It is an album that captures their confidence and talent as superb musicians, their abilities as a combined creative writing force, and their varied musical backgrounds. It showcases their stadium-worthy expansive and riotous songs, while also delivering heartfelt and poetic ballads, powered by gorgeous four-part harmonies.
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FEATURES TWELVE CAPTIVATING SONGS AND SOME DIVERSE GUEST PERFORMERS
www.stevewickham.ie
“In 2012 I was sitting (being painted) for my friend the painter Nick Miller and I started writing tunes as he was painting. The sittings went on over a couple of weeks by that time I’d recorded several hours of improvised music, thus began the seeds of this album…” (Steve Wickham, March 2017)
Many music fans will know Steve Wickham from his virtuoso violin playing in The Waterboys, with whom he has played for over thirty years.
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