Colm Keegan made his mark as a principal singer in the well-known Celtic Thunder, but before he embarked upon a performance career, he was a high school music teacher, with a master’s degree in music.
For years, he’s thought about a way to merge Irish history with music, and there never seemed like a good way to do it—until now.
On Saturday, March 9, Keegan brings the first chapter of a new series called Irish History through Music to the Commodore John Barry Arts & Cultural Center (The Irish Center), 6815 Emlen Street, at the corner of Carpenter and Emlen (SEPTA’s Carpenter station on the Chestnut Hill West Line), in the Mount Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia.
Keegan has already presented that first chapter—Connecting the Celts—in several different venues, and despite some initial trepidation on his part, he says, the audience response has exceeded his expectations.
“We’re going to merge a TED Talk concept, telling the story of Irish history through the medium of PowerPoint presentation, merging live music into appropriate timescales,” he says.
We recently interviewed Keegan about the show. The resulting podcast explains a whole lot more. Listen in.
