Concert: Máire Ní Chathasaigh & Chris Newman Duo - Thursday 26 October 2017 (7:30 PM)

A must-not-miss concert!

This celebrated partnership of “one of the UK’s most staggering and influential acoustic guitarists” (fROOTS) with “the doyenne of Irish harpers” (SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY) and sole harper recipient to date of Irish music’s most prestigious award, Traditional Musician of the Year (Gradam Cheoil TG4), has presented its unique musical vision in twenty-two countries on five continents to venues ranging from the tiniest of village halls to palaces in Kyoto and Istanbul, London’s Barbican, Sydney Town Hall and the Philharmonie in Cologne - a breathtaking blend of traditional Irish music, hot jazz, bluegrass and baroque, spiced with striking new compositions - and what The West Australian calls “Chris’s delightfully subversive wit”! 

Máire Ní Chathasaigh

“Music of fire and brilliance from the high-wire act in traditional music” THE IRISH TIMES

“Blazing guitar and dancing harp” DIRTY LINEN (USA)  

”Brilliant, innovative harping and guitar-playing of astonishing virtuosity and versatility”  SONGLINES

“Remarquables de virtuosité et de grâce” TRAD Magazine (France)

"Máire is the greatest Celtic harpist of our age" Live Ireland

"The most interesting & original player of our Irish harp today" Derek Bell (harper of The Chieftans)

Máire is “the doyenne of Irish harp players” (Scotland on Sunday) and one of Ireland’s most important and influential traditional musicians: she was described by the late Derek Bell as “the most interesting and original player of the Irish harp today”. As a teenager in the 1970s she invented a whole new style of harping that quickly became the norm amongst both her contemporaries and the younger generation of Irish players. In 2001 she received Irish music’s most prestigious award, that of Traditional Musician of the Year – Gradam Cheoil TG4 – “for the excellence and pioneering force of her music, the remarkable growth she has brought to the music of the harp and for the positive influence she has had on the young generation of harpers”. A busy international touring schedule has brought her to twenty-two countries on five continents. 

Chris Newman

“An eclecticism and spirit of adventure that is quite thrilling”
THE TIMES

“Dazzling virtuosity”
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

“Chris is amazing... one of our greatest musicians”
BBC RADIO 2

Chris is a “brilliant English master of the acoustic guitar” (THE DAILY TELEGRAPH), a “dazzling player” (ACOUSTIC GUITAR, USA) whose work is “nothing short of brilliant” (DIRTY LINEN, USA). He began to play guitar at the age of four and at fourteen played his first paid gig in a folk club. A prolific composer, arranger and record producer, he’s played with luminaries of many musical worlds: folk (harper Máire Ní Chathasaigh, Boys of the Lough, Aly Bain, Kathryn Tickell, Danny Thompson), jazz (Stéphane Grappelli, Diz Disley and Danny Thompson again) and comedy (Fred Wedlock, the Pigsty Hill Light Orchestra) – receiving a silver disc for producing Fred’s international hit The Oldest Swinger in Town, to which he also composed the tune and which reached No 2 in the charts in the UK and No 1 in several other countries.

Reviews of live performances

For more information and how to obtain tickets, please click the link to Saint Brigid's Centre:

http://saintbrigidscentre.com/events/event/maire-ni-chathasaigh-chris-newmans-duo/