Calendar

“A Window Into the Emerald Isle”

We have 17 workshops this year that cover Irish music, Irish dance, Irish crafts, Irish language, Genealogy, History and Rules of Hurling (the national sport of Ireland) and Irish Bogs.

Irish performances at the festival:

• The Eugene Highlanders
• Murray Irish Dancers
• Sheldon Choirs
• Brian O’Hart
• Harp Circle
• Irish Stories
• Three of Hearts
• Ceili Mhor.

Closing concert – The Nettles.

Activities:

• Irish Social Dance with instruction
• Hurling Tournament
• Irish Session
• Family Activities where people of all ages learn about Irish history and culture.

It is not an open jam – it is a traditional Irish session – open to all.

Led by Christos Govetas and Ruth Hunter, long-time players in the Balkan music scene, Dromeno includes both of their kids, as well as Nikos Maroussis and Peter Lippman. They present authentic regional music from all over Greece and the Balkans, from the brass sounds of Macedonia, to the sonorous clarinet and vocal interplay of Ipiros and Albania, to strident zourna and daouli and energetic Thracian dance tunes. Come join us for an amazing evening of music and dance.

For more info, see their website: https://www.kyklosmusic.com/DROMENO/Welcome.html

It is not an open jam – it is a traditional Irish session – open to all.

Salem Folklore Community’s 28^th annual Weekend of Music and Dance at Camp Westwind. Beautiful setting on the beach, a few miles north of Lincoln City. Family friendly.  Partial scholarships available.

Registration opens February 23.

Quite simply, Gráinne Hambly and William Jackson are two of the foremost harpers of Ireland and Scotland. Combining their extraordinary talents on harp as well as concertina, tinwhistle and bouzouki, The Masters of the Celtic Harp, have been performing all over the country and dazzling audiences with their artistry.

Alex Hargreaves and Nathaniel Smith join with Sarah Jarosz to form the Sarah Jarosz Trio.

SARAH JAROSZ is a 22- year-old, Grammy-nominated singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who hails from just outside Austin, TX.  A recent graduate from the prestigious New England Conservatory, she released her third album, Build Me Up From Bones, for Sugar Hill Records on September 24^th.  Over the past four years, Jarosz, who musically fits comfortably where contemporary folk, Americana and roots music intersect, has covered a remarkable amount of ground thus far.  She has toured the United States extensively, as well as Canada and the UK, taped Austin City Limits and the BBC Series The Transatlantic Sessions and appeared on A Prairie Home Companion.  Her two previous records (Song Up In Her Head andFollow Me Down) received high praise from outlets including Rolling Stone, New York Times, USA Today, Paste, Mojo, Acoustic Guitar and American Songwriter, and she has received multiple Grammy and Americana Music Association nominations.

Sarah is supported on the road by stellar musicians Alex Hargreaves (fiddle) and Nathaniel Smith (cello).  Hargreaves recently completed the prestigious Berklee Global Jazz Institute at the Berklee College of Music in Boston and has been tapped to perform and record with such musicians as Jerry Douglas and jazz master Danilo Perez.  Smith has toured for years with renown Cape Breton fiddler Natalie MacMaster and, more recently, in various configurations with Jeremy Kittel.  Jarosz, Hargreaves and Smith, who met at various music camps when they were much younger, have been performing together since 2010; the sheer joy they express on stage during performances is contagious.  Hargreaves and Smith are both featured on Jarosz’s upcoming release Build Me Up From Bones.

It is not an open jam – it is a traditional Irish session – open to all.

Four Shillings Short play a fantastic collection of world instruments:

Hammered & Mountain Dulcimer, Mandolins, Renaissance Woodwinds, Bouzouki , Recorders, Sitar, Tinwhistles, Banjo, Percussion & Psaltery.

“Four Shillings Short takes you on a musical journey through time and across the seas as they perform everything from traditional Irish tunes and airs to Indian Ragas.”
– The Foothills Sun-Gazette/ Exeter, CA

“Their musical virtuosity makes old songs sound new and new songs sound like
time-worn Celtic spells.” – CITY PAGES, Wausau WI

“The international duo have carved out a musical identity all their own.”
– River Stages, Dubuque IA

An evening of Moroccan, Yemenite and Hebrew devotional music
featuring the soulful Yemenite singer Maya Haddi.
With David Reihs on percussion.
and special guest dancer, Jane Archer

Yuval Ron is an internationally renowned World Music artist, composer, educator, peace activist and record producer. Among his many honors, he composed the songs and score for the Oscar winning film West Bank Story in 2007, was the featured artist in the Gala Concert for the Dalai Lama’s initiative Seeds of Compassion in the Seattle Opera Hall in 2008, has collaborated with the Sufi leader Pir Zia Inayat Khan since 2006 and was the musical producer of master-musician Omar Faruk Tekbilek’s albums ONE and ONE Truth. He received commissions for original music scores from the Getty Center, Japan-America Theater and LAX International Airport and provided numerous scores for TV and films including the PBS/Nova special, Breaking the Maya Code, Proteus, Oliver Twist, The Spiral Staircase, Golda’s Balcony and Dance of the Maize God. Yuval Ron is a noted lecturer and has been invited to speak at numerous schools including: Yale, John Hopkins University, UCLA, Middlebury College, MIT, Berklee College of Music, University of Chicago. Yuval Ron has been on the faculty of Esalen Institute since 2009, is an affiliated artist with the Center for Jewish Culture and Creativity, and a “Guiding Voice” for Seven Pillars – House of Wisdom. His awards include the Los Angeles Treasures Award and prestigious grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, American Composers Forum, California Council for the Humanities and the Rockefeller Foundation. He is the author of the book Divine Attunement: Music as a Path to Wisdom published by Oracle Institute Press.

Kef is based in Eugene and has been playing for dancers since 2007. Their music is a sampling of the regional genres found across the Balkans, from Bulgarian wedding music to Serbian brass band, and from 1960s radio-style orchestrations to simple melody/drone-based village music.  Most repertoire comes from the folk tradition, learned from recordings or directly from notable musicians in the Balkan music community.  Each member brings a unique aspect to the music stemming from the diversity of their individual musical experiences and aesthetics.  The band consists of Nisha Calkins-Godfrey on cello, Dan Gibson on guitar , Alex Lowe on trumpet, Sharon Rogers on accordion and vocals, Cody Simmons on trumpet and truba, and Ken Sokolov on percussion.

Bring finger food to share.

This event is sponsored by the Hoolyeh Folkdancers and the Corvallis Folklore Society.

The 13th annual festival has moved from Peace Presbyterian Church to the Irving Grange which is still in the Santa Clara area.  The Eugene Scottish Festival Committee is a nonprofit organization that provides the only Scottish cultural event in Lane County, the 13th annual such event.  On stage the music is mainly folk with lots of fiddles, Guitars, harps and bagpipes.  It is a family event and no alcohol is served.  We organize games for children, including a bouncy house, a Scottish museum, Scottish foods and a dog parade.

Rebecca Lomnicky and David Brewer are a high energy pure-drop Scottish music duo, with world class fiddling talent in combination with bagpipes, guitar, bodhran, and whistle. International Scottish Fiddle Champion, Rebecca Lomnicky, and David Brewer of the popular Celtic band Molly’s Revenge, have each spent copious amounts of time delving into the traditions of their respective instruments, living and studying in both Edinburgh and the highlands of Scotland. Together they perform captivating Scottish music which bridges the gap between the fiddle and bagpipe music of Scotland—two worlds united, into a heartfelt and rousing musical experience. Between their entertaining and informative stage banter, their four instrument combinations and vast repertoire of tunes, including everything from soaring slow airs to intricately arranged dance tunes, these charismatic performers will leave you on your feet with your hands together.

The new CD, THE FIRE, is Lomnicky and Brewer’s second album together and fully showcases every aspect of their stylistic expertise, technical prowess, and musical passion. Combining the aesthetic elements of all their past recordings into a newer finely crafted sound, this album features the diversity of Scotland’s traditional regional styles with an added contemporary flare.

There can’t be many Swedish folk groups with a street named after them in America, a tribute some citizens of Bloomington, Indiana, have conferred upon the extraordinarily accomplished trio Väsen.

Väsen is a Swedish “folk revival” band that has been playing together for over 25 years and has been dubbed “the best band in the world” by music critics and listeners alike. Although inspired by, and firmly rooted in traditional Swedish folk music, Väsen adds to the genre with distinct harmonies and rhythms. The band features Olov Johansson on nyckelharpa, the national instrument of Sweden, Mikael Marin on 5-string viola, and Roger Tallroth on 12-string guitar (tuned A-D-A-D-A-D). Väsen in Swedish has multiple meanings: spirit, noise, a living being, and essence, being the most prominent.

Watch them on A Prairie Home Companion, or at the Celtic Colours International Festival.