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October 2007

Music

Local Pipe Bands Win With Amazing Grace

Emerald celebrates.

Emerald celebrates.

It’s a fair bet that each pipe band preparing to compete Saturday at the Anne Arundel Scottish Highland Games had hoped—possibly even believed—it was truly ready.

By “ready,” I mean that each band had methodically selected three to five tunes up to a year before. Each had played the same three to five tunes over and over again, for hours at a time, week in and week out, until fingers could remember the notes even when the mind forgot them. They had incurred the ire of abandoned spouses. They had willingly submitted to the searing criticism of petulant pipe majors.

All this, for a contest measured in moments. A solid year of focused effort, sacrifice and commitment—all of it riding on one all-too-brief performance in the fading Southern Maryland sunshine. Win, place, show—or crash and burn.

Fortunately, for three Delaware-area bagpipe bands, it was a day of happy endings. The Ulster Scottish Pipe Band of Devon placed first in grade 3; the Philadelphia Emerald Society Pipe Band racked up a first in grade 4; and the Cameron Highlanders Pipe Band of Lafayette Hill notched a second in grade 4. (Pipe bands are lumped into grades so that they’re more or less evenly matched with the bands against which they might compete. Grade 5 is entry-level; grades 4 and grade 3 are more advanced; and grades 2 and 1 are reserved for the scarily good pipe bands. Not surprisingly, there are lots and lots of grade 5 bands in the United States, but there are only a few grade 1 bands.)

For those whose interests do not include the trials of bagpipe band competition (what’s wrong with you, anyway?), there were lots of other activities to keep you occupied in a Celtic sort of way, including sheep dog trials, Highland athletics, haggis eating (thanks, I’ll pass), shortbread nibbling (I’m there), music, Scottish dancing and more.

The videos:

October 17, 2007 by
Music

Anúna’s Lush Harmonies Come to Annenberg

The superb Irish choral group Anúna.

The superb Irish choral group Anúna.

Picture long, flowing robes and long, flowing pre-Raphaelite hair. (Except for the guys.) Envision silken-voiced sopranos hitting notes so high, dogs two states away stop dead in their tracks and say, “Hey, what the heck was that?”

Yup. That’s Anúna.

Even though the group has been around 20 years—exactly the same age as its youngest member—it only just made its Philadelphia debut on Friday at Penn’s Annenberg Center.

It was not a full house (unfortunately), but director John McGlynn and his band of singers made the best of it.

Anúna is currently flacking a new CD and DVD, “Celtic Origins,” and PBS stations all over the country are promoting the heck out of that performance for fund-raising purposes. No complaints there. Anything that gets the local PBS programmers off the odious André Reieu can only be a good thing.

Anúna’s live performance turns out to as thrilling as what you see on the PBS special. It’s better, actually. In live performance, Anúna takes full advantage of the whole theatre. At the show’s beginning, voices come at the audience out of the dark from all directions, rising and falling, filling the hall with superb, complex harmonies. Eventually, after a bit of mystical meandering, all the singers do wind up on stage, and pretty much remain there for the duration of the show.

In Philadelphia, the group performed several cuts form the new CD and DVD, including “Greensleeves,” “Scarborough Fair” and “I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls,” the latter performed beautifully by the smoky alto Miriam Blennerhassett, the group’s choral mistress and a founding member of Anúna.

There were also some tunes from previous CDs, including the wonder “Winter Fire and Snow,” “Dúlamán,” “Riu Riu,” “Siuil A Ruin” and the haunting “Piè Jesu.”

Small though the audience was, it was hugely appreciative, rewarding the group with a standing ovation. Anúna returned the gesture with a blazing performance of the tongue-twisting “Fionnghuala.” (If you think saying it is hard, try singing it.) If you have no idea what “Fionnghuala” is or what it sounds like, head on over to our YouTube channel for a video I recorded (not a very good one, I’m afraid) during the group’s summer promotional tour at the Center City Borders.

And, if and when Anúna shows up in your neck of the woods again, catch this very polished and memorable act.

October 16, 2007 by
Genealogy

Your Chance To Meet a Family History “Star” This Month

Yes, she has two last names–and they’re both the same–but she’s earned them. Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak is one of the leading experts on genealogy and what’s being termed genetealogy–the use of DNA to further genealogical research–in the country. She’s the author of “Honoring Your Roots” and “Trace Your Roots with DNA.” And she’ll be the guest speaker at the 30th anniversary of the Delaware Genealogical Society on Sunday, October 22, at the Brandywine Country Club.

 For amateur ancestor hunters, Smolenyak has the star power of Brangelina.

Smolenyak of Haddonfield, NJ,  is the researcher who discovered that the woman who was thought to be the “little Annie Moore” of Ellis Island fame was actually not the right girl.  (Annie is the 15-year-old Cork native who was the first to pass through the new immigration center in 1892 and who is memorialized by two statues, one in Ireland and the other on Ellis Island.) The real Annie Moore, Smolenyak discovered, did not move to Texas as was thought; she never left New York, and died there after marrying a German immigrant and bearing 11 children.

The event costs $33 per person and you must make reservations by October 13. Go to www.delgensoc.org.

October 8, 2007 by
Music

Happy Harpers Head for the Hills

It's a full house on Saturday night.

It's a full house on Saturday night.

Who knew harpers needed an escape?

I mean, there they are, playing one of the most restful musical instruments on the planet (unless Harpo’s playing), and yet they need an escape? Why, your average Celtic harper could teach Perry Como to relax. (Yes, I know … given that the old crooner has been dead the past six years, it would be hard to be more relaxed.)

But I digress.

The point is, harpers from throughout the Delaware Valley (and probably beyond) are about to head to the Poconos for their 15th Annual Harpers Escape Weekend. It takes place Oct. 12-14 at The Country Place Retreat and Conference Center in White Haven.

It’s not actually an escape from anything other than the distractions of everyday life. It’s really more like a total-immersion retreat for people who love and play the Celtic harp, at all levels. In a series of small classes led by some of the world’s finest players and teachers, including Grainne Hambly, Bill Jackson, Kathy DeAngelo, Debbie Brewin-Wilson, and Sharon Knowles, harpers will get a chance to hone their skills—and just spend time with other people who are as passionate as they are about this lovely, ancient instrument.

DeAngelo and Brewin-Wilson hatched the idea.

“Debbie and I were sitting around playing harps one weekend in 1992 and trying to rehearse for a gig but we were constantly interrupted by various household events,” says Kathy. “We thought it would be a great idea to escape for a weekend where we’d only be playing harp. We figured if we could get a few other people to join us it would be a lot of fun. We initially convinced some of our students and some total strangers to trek down to Cape May.

“Little did I know that, when we did the first weekend in 1993 at a small B&B down in Cape May with nine other players, that it would turn into a regular tradition. The Harpers Escape was a pioneering event and the model for many other harp weekends.”
 
The Escape has had several venues over the years, including Spring Lake, N.J., and Ocean Grove, where until last year it was headquartered at the Manchester Inn. But the Escape keeps growing, so this year, the harpers head to the hills.

“We have more space this year and more teachers and hopefully we’ll get more people to come—but we’re still dedicated to having small classes,” says Kathy.
 
Almost 60 percent of the attendees are alumni, she adds. Pretty clearly, the experience resonates. “Our motto has been ‘harp till you drop,’ and we mean it,” Kathy says. “We try to get the ‘shy’ players to not feel so self-conscious about playing and just realize that they can have a good time playing. We have everybody from inexperienced players to really experienced players—all giving each other encouragement and taking joy in the instrument and the music. Everybody has something to contribute.”

October 5, 2007 by