For anyone in the Capital District, I’m passing along this notice from a colleague:
"This Saturday, June 17, at 6 pm, at the Old Songs Community Arts Center in Voorheesville, there will be a wonderful concert of traditional Irish music, featuring uilleann pipes, harp, fiddle, and flute. The performers are: from Vermont, Benedict Koehler and Hilari Farrington on pipes and harp; from New Jersey, Willie and Siobhan Kelly on fiddle and flute. These performers are some of the finest traditional Irish musicians in the country; they are good friends who have played together for years and whose playing styles fit together wonderfully well. This is, in short, an outstanding group and a concert not to be missed.
Tickets are $10. All proceeds from this concert will go to support the annual East Coast Pipers’ Tionol (Gathering), a weekend of piping and fiddle classes and concerts, which takes place in October in East Durham, New York. The concert supports the Tionol; the Tionol ensures that the music will continue. Listening to wonderful music for a good cause – what better way to spend an evening?
I have a session to go to that day, but if I was not I would go to this. Having played with Willie a couple times and seeing his preformances this is not to be missed. Him and Siobhan make a great duo, I am waiting for them to put out an album together I think it would be killer.
Well, here’s my balanced, reflective, nuanced review of last evening’s concert: WOW were these folks good! Nice mix of solos and duets (especially a slow air on the pipes–I think “Napoleon’s Farewell to Paris” was the title–leading into a pipe/harp duet), and beautiful blending in the full ensemble pieces, great drive throughout. So do catch these musicians, or any subset of them, if you ever have the chance.
