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CARTHAGE – New England Celtic Arts will host popular Boston Irish fiddler George Keith and friends at Skye Theatre Performing Arts Center in South Carthage, Maine on Sunday September 5th. Skye Theatre is planning to make this an annual event to close out the summer season. A pre-show jam will start at 6:30 at Skye Theatre. Audience members are encouraged to bring their instruments.
George Keith’s family have owned property in Carthage, Me for many years. Each year they gather with friends from the Boston music scene on Labor Day weekend to enjoy Maine and music. George grew up playing classical violin, but found himself drawn to Irish traditional music in the early 1990s. He learned to play traditional music between Chicago and Boston, and has since won both North American Irish fiddle titles. More recently, George has performed as a member of Grammy Award-winning Tim O’Brien’s bluegrass/Irish crossover band “The Crossing” and appears on the DVD of WGBH’s “A Christimas Celtic Sojourn, Live”. These days, he regularly performs with Robbie O’Connell and Aoife Clancy, and can often be found playing for dancing and in Irish sessions in Boston.
Tina Lech is a North American Irish fiddle champion whose playing is known on both sides of the Atlantic. Her trio with Dana Lyn and Donna Long performs regularly in the U.S. Her playing has been featured in radio and television programs in Ireland since the 1980s, and she learned the fiddle as a young child from renowned New York fiddler Jimmy Devine. She teaches fiddle both in the Irish Studies Department at Boston College and for Boston Comhaltas Ceoltirireann.
Ted Davis grew up in Southborough, MA and first started playing Irish music while in college in Maine studying guitar performance. He then spent one year in Cork, Ireland doing post-bac “research,” playing music with the natives. Ted is a highly sought-after guitarist and has performed with numerous groups both in Ireland and in North America, most recently Kevin Crawford and Cillian Vallely of Lunasa. He has also performed with Aoife O’Donovan and the Boston Pops Orchestra.
Sean Clohessy comes from the parish of Fedamore in Co Limerick. He has been playing fiddle for the past 20 years, with much of his early influences coming from musicians in his native Limerick and the neighboring Co. Clare. He has spent time living and playing music in London where his music was heavily influenced by the Clare fiddle player Brendan Mulkere. Since then he lived for a time in New York and now Boston. His style incorporates elements of the rich musical traditions characteristic to these areas. He has won several All-Ireland titles and currently plays regularly throughout Boston and New York.
John Coyne a native of Limerick, Ireland came to America over twenty years ago and after living in places from Pennsylvania to Mississippi, has finally settled down in the Boston area. John has been playing bouzouki primarily, but is also known to strum a guitar and maybe even sing a song. He plays regularly in sessions throughout the Boston area and also in Providence, Rhode Island with his wife Lisa and Uilleann Piper Patrick Hutchinson. John also plays with a long time friend Larre Reeves in the duo Coyne & Reeves.
They play in many festivals throughout the Southeast. Lisa Coyne began playing traditional Irish flute and whistle in her early 20s, when she lived for several years in Ireland. Her playing is influenced by music from Clare and East Galway, and she performs regularly in Providence and Boston. She is the recipient of a grant from the Southern New England Traditional and Folk Arts Apprenticeship Program for sean nos singing.
Kate Minogue is a singer/songwriter originally from Baltimore. Originally a classical flute player and self-professed band nerd, she studied Irish flute with Noel Lenaghan in Galway and began performing original music while in school in North Carolina. She now lives in Boston, frequenting local sessions on Irish flute.
Jackie O’Riley began Irish set dancing as a teenager in the Boston area. She has gone on to study sean-ns and traditional step dancing with a variety of teachers in the US and Ireland, and currently studies with Kieran Jordan. This past summer she attended the summer school at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick. She has performed in “A Christmas Celtic Sojourn, “A Saint Patrick’s Day Celtic Sojourn,” “Celebrate!” at the JFK Library and Museum, and has choreographed and performed in the Boston Celtic Music Festival. She teaches non-competitive traditional step dancing in the Boston area.
Skye Theater is located 3 miles West of East Dixfield village at 2 Highland Drive off Winter Hill Rd and US RT. 2 in South Carthage. Lakeside Theatre is on Main Street in Rangeley, Maine. Ticket price is $10.00 at the door. Call New England Celtic Arts at (207) 562-4445 for reservations and directions. More information at: http://www.necelticarts.com
