Major Concert Announcement!

“Anybody who listens can’t help but find them contagious.”--Billboard Magazine

It is with great excitement that I announce that Lúnasa will be returning to East Rochester High School on Friday, September 17, 2010! Lúnasa is quite simply the top band in Irish music, and have been for more than a decade. They are also the reason I am an Irish musician. Without this band, there would be no Celtic Music Society, no me as an Irish flute player, and probably no me as a music teacher.

They have been declared "the best Irish traditional instrumental band on the planet" by The Irish Echo, and the UK's famous Mojo music magazine calls them "The New Gods of Irish Music". Mojo's writer states that "Lúnasa’s musicianship is awesome… I’d sell my soul to be able to play like that."

This event is the Friday after the Rochester Irish Festival; Celtic will play at 7:30, and Lunasa will take the stage at 8:00. More info will be coming soon on ticket prices, availability, etc.

Lúnasa’s website is at http://www.lunasa.ie/.

New Videos!

Two great new videos are up on our YouTube channel, Both Sides the Tweed and The Drunken Piper, two of our favorites and best, recorded March 19 at 171 Cedar in Corning and mixed at ERHS. I hope you enjoy them! More tracks and videos will come out, and the completed concert tracks will make a live album to be released either June or September.

New Live Recordings!

Our series of concerts this month were all huge successes, but none more so than our show last Friday (3/19) at 171 Cedar Arts Center in Corning. Thank to Susan O'Leary for the invitation, and special thanks to John Manfredi for doing such great work running sound for us! John was in contact with me several times a day in the week leading up to the show to make sure we had everything just right... he then put our sound through an Alesis 8-track ADAT machine, which I have since uploaded into ProTools for digital editing and mixing. The result is that in a few short months, we will be releasing a live album from this show. I can proudly say that these live performances are as good or better than anything we did in the studio with multiple takes to record The Devils of Dublin.

Did I mention that earlier that week Jayne played at Princeton with The Chieftains?

New pics from the 171 show are on our homepage at http://www.celticmusicsociety.org/, as is a mostly-mixed (that means not-quite-final) track of The Drunken Piper set.

p.s. We've been invited back to the Rochester Irish Festival in September, and in the next few weeks we're expecting to make a major concert announcement.

Great Upcoming Events!

We are pleased to announce our March performance schedule!

March 6: Irish Music Dinner Event and fundraiser for Ontario Arts Council @ All Things Art in Canandaigua. Dinner at 7:00; our performance time TBA.

March 16: Annual St. Patrick's Day Alumni Dinner @ St. John Fisher College

March 17: The annual Kaleidoscope Concert, featuring all East Rochester instrumental musicians and ensembles in grades 7-12. The past four years have seen themes, including Mozart; Music of the Civil War; Music of Africa; and Latin Music. This year's theme: An Irish Evening, featuring music of Ireland and other Celtic regions.

March 19: Celtic Music Society Live in Concert at 171 Cedar Arts, Corning, NY. We are very excited about this event... each of the past few years 171 Cedar Arts has hosted a big-name Irish band for a St. Patrick's Day concert, and now it's our turn! Join us for for more than 2 hours of great music and fun! We will be recording a live album at this event.

Recording Begins!

We have begun work on our next album in the ERHS recording studio. We are aiming for a (hopefully, we'll see about realistic) release date of St. Patrick's Day 2010.

Celtic is now on iTunes!

Our two albums, The Devils of Dublin (2008) and Color Blind (2003) are now available on iTunes in the U.S., Canada, Australia, Japan, and throughout the European Union. Both albums are also available in other digital music outlets, including Rhapsody, eMusic, Napster, and Amazon mp3. Our blog and the gowmanmusic.com website now feature widgets that play streams from The Devils of Dublin and allow listeners to jump directly to iTunes.

Celtic News!

We've just finished our big March rush with seven performances in just over a week! Nothing against any of the other gigs which we absolutely enjoyed, but everyone especially loved the evening performance at Victor Intermediate School. There's something about having a crowd in the hundreds and being asked for your autograph afterward...

Tomorrow we begin a new era with our program as we start a second group, gearing up for next year, while the current group continues. This is far from "Celtic Junior" as we had a few years ago... rather, we are preparing to hit the ground running next year and I believe that the two groups--Celtic Senior and Celtic-of-the-Future (insert SciFi sound effect)--will be evenly matched by the end of this school year...

Special thanks to The Irish Musicians Association of Rochester, who wanted to do something special for the kids in appreciation of our partnership in bringing Teada here in December; we all went to the Cheesecake Factory for a well-deserved feast to celebrate the end of March!

Our YouTube and MySpace pages are up and running, and we now have recordings of newly introduced music on the website for students to practice with and learn from.

The latest news in Celtic

There are several updates to the Celtic website, including some new embedded video from our new YouTube channel. If you have any video of performances, please let me know!

We've received notice that the Celtic Music Society website sits first on the "music" list of Irish cultural resources assembled by BestUniversity.com, a resource for online learning and degrees.

We now have a number of events scheduled for March... the calendar is available here.

Finally, congratulations to our wonderful friend Jayne Pomplas, who has (again) been invited to perform with The Chieftains!

Celtic collects money for family in need

At the Irish Christmas in America concert on December 13, we raised and donated $135 for the Smith Family, who had three children injured in an accident on their way to school. All three children are now out of the hospital and continue to recover. Below is information on the Smith Family Fund, taken from www.erschools.org.

DISTRICT REACHING OUT TO FAMILY AFFECTED BY ACCIDENT;THIRD SIBLING HOME FROM HOSPITAL (updated 12-18-08)
Students, teachers, and staff in the East Rochester School District are doing all they can to make sure the family of three siblings hit by a school bus recently know that many thoughts are with them.
The students' classmates have made get-well cards and other items, which were delivered directly to the family.
In addition, the village of ER, with the help of school resource officer Scott Montcrieff, has set up a fund for the family's medical and other expenses and needs.
Second-grader Malik H. was released from Strong Memorial Hospital Tuesday, Dec. 16; his sister, fourth-grader Monefay, and brother, seventh-grader Akeem, were treated and released the afternoon of the incident. The accident happened as the children, along with a fourth sibling who wasn't injured, were being escorted through a crosswalk by a crossing guard on their way to school.
Those wishing to contribute to the fund can send donations to the Village of East Rochester Smith Family Fund, c/o the village of East Rochester, 120 W. Commercial St., East Rochester, N.Y. 14445. Checks must be made out to "Village of East Rochester Smith Family Fund."

Irish Christmas in America at ERHS

It was another great night last night as we welcomed the tour Irish Christmas in America, featuring Teada and Karan Casey. They did not disappoint... Teada was in top form and Karan's voice was every bit as sweet as it is on her many recordings. There were several great sets of quick reels and jigs, but for me the highlights were Karan singing The Parting Glass and the encore of her singing Silent Night in Gaelic.



For our opening set we welcomed guest musicians Jayne Pomplas (fiddle), Kevin Crouch (bouzouki), and Ted McGraw (accordion), and it was also the first performance for three new 8th graders, Austin, Alyssa, and Brittney, who look like the future of this group. Our set: 1) Reels: Swallowtail, The Banshee, Merry Blacksmith; 2) Jigs: Leitrim Fancy, Butlers of Glen Ave., The Tenpenny Bit; 3) Waltzes: South Wind, The Gentle Maiden; 4) Jigs: Morrison's, The Butterfly; 5) I'll Tell Me Ma, The Silver Spear. Congrats to the students on a great performance!



The show was followed by a truly great session at Timothy Patrick's with a couple of dozen musicians that went well beyond 1:00 am. (And thanks again for the sandwich, Mr. Malone!)

Special thanks to Mr. Regan who did an absolutely brilliant job with sound; Seth, who ran lighting for us; Bill Ertle, whoh got us our video and helped keep us safe while we worked on the set; and to our good friends in Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann who brought the tour to town and put the whole thing together. This is - I think - our 7th collaboration with CCE.

Hope you enjoy this video of I'll Tell Me Ma & The Silver Spear!

Spreading the gospel...

Last Wednesday was the first of a series of four Irish music workshops presented to 7th and 8th graders from across Monroe County. The workshops are part of a program know as Project ADEPT, which is run by Monroe BOCES #2 and offers enrichment and exporatory opportunitities for advanced students in grades 7 & 8. The workshops are providing an introduction to Irish Music for approximately 100 students who are learning basic playing skills and techniques, musical/cultural history, instruments, etc. The workshop is titled Celtic Music: Traditions and Techniques, and the remaining workshops are Nov. 17, 24, and December 2. We will also present a January workshop with some of our ERHS students for the fiddle club at Victor Elementary School.

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!