Our newest addition...

It was just over a month ago that we announced the addition of a Dusty Strings lever harp to our collection of instruments...

Today our long-awaited Gold Tone IT-250 Irish tenor banjo arrived. The Irish tenor has 4 strings (instead of 5 as seen on the standard bluegrass banjo), tuned GDAE like a fiddle or mandolin, but an octave lower. It has a longer neck than the mandolin and violin, but not quite as long as the bouzouki or octave mandolin. Like all banjos, it has a drum for the body.

Our banjo has lovely mother-of-pearl inlays in a cloud design.

Be sure to check out the video of Max playing The Swallowtail Reel (which he's just learning!) on the banjo, right out of the box... mandolin skills transfer well!

Pics from ERAF Dinner

Thanks to our good friend and former Celtic mom Deb DiNatale for these shots!

Join us at the ERAF Dinner October 23!

This event is being hosted by the East Rochester Alumni Foundation. Your meal will be tastefully prepared by the talented student-chefs who are participants in the popular and very successful ERHS Culinary Arts curriculum. Entertainment will be provided by the East Rochester Celtic Music Society and decorations will be courtesy of Ms. Pleninger’s art students. Tickets are $8 for adults and $5 for children under 10. They are available from Alumni Foundation board members http://www.erschools.org/alumni/docs/071408_about.pdf, at the ER District Office (checks only), at the door on October 23rd or by calling Patty Pullano at 586-8905.

The Devils of Dublin CD available now!

Celtic Music Society's 2008 release The Devils of Dublin has been met with praise from the public and fans of Irish music. It features an hour of music on 12 tracks, and runs a wide range from slow to fast, traditional to contemporary, serious to whimsical.

We welcome some of Western New York's top Irish musicians on 10 of the 12 tracks, including Marty O'Keefe (fiddle/concertina), Ted McGraw (accordion), Jayne Pomplas (fiddle), Mitzie Collins (hammered dulcimer), Lynn Pilaroscia (fiddle), Cathy McGrath (voice), Steve Condon (bodhran), John Fetter (fiddle), and Brian Regan (bass).

Listening samples are available at http://www.celticmusicsociety.org/devils.htm.

The album can be purchased at several area stores, or can be purchased directly from us for $15.00 + $3.50 for shipping. Send orders to:

Celtic Music Society

East Rochester High School

200 Woodbine Ave.

East Rochester, NY 14445

Call 585.248.6344 or e-mail mark_gowman@er.monroe.edu for more information.

Teada & Karan Casey in Concert

Saturday, December 13: Teada, singer Karen Casey, harper Grainne Hambly & piper Tommy Martin will be Live in Concert at East Rochester High School, presented through another collaboration between Celtic Music Society and the Tom Finucane chapter of Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann (The Irish Musicians Association).


We are excited to welcome Teada back for the 2nd time, and I am especially excited to see Karan Casey. Karan was the voice of Solas for many years, and is considered by many to be the greatest singer in Irish music. Billboard Magazine says that she has shown herself to be "capable of anything" with her latest album Ships in the Forest, which I love... The Herald has declared Karan to be "the most soulful singer in Irish music today."


We'll have more info on this great event soon, with ticket prices, locations, etc.

Celtic's October News...

Welcome to our newest members Chris and Alyssa... we usually move people into the performance group and have to wait for them to catch up, but Chris is doing great on bodhran and Alyssa is probably going to show the current flute players (including me) a few things.

We have several folks working on new instruments... we're waiting on an Irish tenor banjo and have just purchased a beautiful Dusty Strings harp. New students are also working on flute, whistle (pipes?), and fiddle.

Welcome to the new Celtic Music Society Blog!

Hi everybody and thanks for joining us! We will continue to use the Celtic website at celticmusicsociety.org as our "face" on the web, but regular updates, big and small, are now going to go through here. I hope you'll sign on to follow us in all of our upcoming adventures!

p.s. Thanks to Mrs. Willard and Mr. Regan for encouraging me to come into the future... wiki wiki wiki!