Paraic Keane will perform at the Philadelphia Ceili Group benefit on May 21.
Blockbuster weekend at the Philadelphia Irish Center—too bad you can’t sleep over.
On Saturday night, the Philadelphia Ceili Group is hosting a benefit concert featuring the region’s top trad talent to raise money for the 2011 Ceili Group Irish Traditional Music and Dance Festival, scheduled for September 8-10.
On the bill are Erin Shrader, US Irish fiddle champ, teacher, bow maker, and writer, and recent transplant from California; fiddler Paraic Keane, a Dubliner and son of The Chieftains’ Sean Keane and nephew of noted box player James Keane, also a recent transplant; Ellen Tepper, harpist and historian who plays a variety of harps, including medieval instruments and the Irish wire strung harp; Tim Hill, who has been part of the Philadelphia Irish music scene since he was 9 (he’s 17 now), an uillean pipe and whistle player; Paddy O’Neill, flute and tin whistle player from Derry City; Caitlin Finley, a 20-year-old Columbia University student from King of Prussia who is one of the most highly regarded fiddle players on the East Coast; Andrew Boyd, a fiddler from Cape Breton; and Dan McHugh, an uillean piper who plays in the Philadelphia/Baltimore areas.
It promises to be a foot-tapping, hard-shoe-dancing, clap-till-it-hurts kind of time.
This weekend is your chance to see the Druid Theater’s version of Martin McDonagh’s play, “The Cripple of Inishmaan,” at the Annenberg Center. It is, like all of McDonagh’s works, darkly comic.
On Sunday, the Irish Center and the Irish Immigration Center of Philadelphia honor 12 women of Irish descent whose lives serve as an inspiration to others. The Inspirational Irish Women Awards will be presented at a cocktail reception hosted by CBS3 reporter Kathy Orr, herself a 2010 recipient of the award.
Two remarkable musicians—multi-instrumentalist and singer, Gabriel Donohue, who has toured with The Chieftains, performed at the White House, and at Carnegie Hall (five times—that’s a lot of practice, practice, practice), and singer Marian Makins—will be performing. The Rince Ri Dancers will open the awards presentations and there will be a tribute performance by Dennis Gormley and Kathy DeAngelo (McDermott’s Handy) for the late Liz Crehan Anderson, one of the honorees and well known in Philadelphia’s Irish traditional music community. Photographer Brian Mengini’s portraits of the women will be on display.
For more information, go to the Inspirational Irish Women Awards website.
Oh, and there’s more going on elsewhere. On Sunday at Molly Maguire’s Pub in Lansdale, our friend Bill Reid of East of the Hebrides Entertainment is bringing in those wild barbarians of drum solos, Albannach, and Paul Moore and Friends for “Molly’s Music Fest,” in the streets. Should be a good time.
The Bucks County Irish Center Festival is also taking place on Sunday at Park Polanka in Bensalem. And The Old Blind Dogs, a Scottish group, will be performing at Hockessin Memorial Hall in Hockessin, DE, the same day.
On Thursday, the 22nd Annual Cape May Music Festival kicks off with an all-star Irish band. The Pride of New York features some of the greats of Irish traditional music, including Cherish the Ladies’ own Joanie Madden, fiddler Brian Conway; accordion player Billy McComiskey (whose son, Sean, was recently on stage at the Philadelphia Irish Center and who, we hear, will be there himself for the Ceili Group festival in September) and keyboardist Brendan Dolan. Opening for this Irish supergroup is our own local McDermott’s Handy (Dennis Gormley and Kathy DeAngelo).
Check out our calendar for all the details.
