And don't forget "A Christmas Memory" at Irish Rep
"Idir Arts Collective at NYFA, Brooklyn"
 

Check for more dates of music, theatre and more on our calendar and don't forget to submit your own events!
Hoping to send a newsletter soon, but up on the web are some great write-ups for you, reviews of Moya Brennan, the play "Howie the Rookie,"  the Irish Rep Groundbreaking, an evening with Peter Quinn and Fintan Dunne and more. In the New Year we promise music reviews: Alan Kelly, James Cleveland, Gillian Head...

Meanwhile, Happy Hanukkah! The holiday began Tuesday night... and Merry Christmas, because it's coming!


Mick Moloney is back with Irish Christmas at Symphony Space. We have one pair of tickets to give away for Friday, Dec. 19, and one for Saturday, Dec. 20. Email Irish Christmas to claim.

And, Pipes of Christmas are in New York and in New Jersey this weekend! We have CDs of “The Best of the Pipes of Christmas 1999-2012″ to give away. Email Scottish Christmas to claim. 

  Mick Moloney's Irish Christmas has become a holiday staple. It moved uptown from Irish Arts Center last year to Symphony Space and is there again this year...

I reviewed the wonderful CD when it came out in 2011, and wrote about the concert last year...
 
 Details, from their press materials::

December 18-20 | 8 pm
December 21 | 5 pm

at Symphony Space
2537 Broadway at 95th Street
New York, NY 10025

Featuring Mick Moloney and Athena Tergis

with
Tamar Korn, jazz singer' Billy McComiskey, accordionist
Liz Hanley, fiddler and singer' Donna Long, pianist' Grace Nono, singer of Philippine chant' Niall O’Leary, dancer
John Roberts, concertina and singer

and Special Guests:

MAUREEN MURPHY
Irish American Historian and Educator
December 19

HAYLEY RICHARDSON
12-year-old award-winning fiddle player from South Jersey
December 19

BARBARA JONES
Consul General of Ireland in New York
December 20

LENWOOD O. SLOAN
Multi-faceted Cultural and Heritage Presenter and Organizer
December 21

Now, for THE PIPES OF CHRISTMAS. Think Outlander. Braveheart. Robert Burns. A good shot of Scotch! (OK, that last one is not at the concert). The Pipes of Christmas is something unique, drawing on Scottish tradition, with holiday readings... as much a prayer as a concert.

I've written about it a few times, and had Bob Currie, the producer, on the podcast as well.

And don't forget the events listed above: the Holidays are red, green, and tartan all over the tri-state area!

“The Pipes of Christmas” has its 16th year of performances this year, and as always, will include readings from Scotland, Ireland and Wales, and outstanding music.

The Clan Currie Society produces the events. The first concert is on Saturday, Dec. 20, at the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, 921 Madison Ave. at 2 and 7 p.m. On Sunday, Dec. 21, the concert crosses the Hudson to the Central Presbyterian Church at 70 Maple Street, Summit.

Scots Gaelic singer Gillebride MacMillan makes his New York-era debut. But though new here as a singer, he probably isn’t new to fans of STARZ’ smash hit “Outlander”: he plays Gwyllyn the Bard.

James Robinson from the film “Braveheart” will be here, as well as Paul Woodiel (Riverdance) on fiddle, Christopher Layer on uillean pipe (both are in Sting’s “The Last Ship,” too), and Gaelic Mod champion harpist Jennifer Port from Scotland. On guitar, there’s Steve Gibb (“Jersey Boys”), and the Pipe Major Kevin Ray Blandford Memorial Pipe Band from California.

The concerts will commemorate the Christmas Truce of 1914, the famous unofficial ceasefire on the Western Front, and will also have a tribute to legendary Cape Breton fiddler, Buddy MacMaster, who passed in August at the age of 89. There will also be premieres of new music: in New Jersey, the new pipe tune “The Garden State March,” composed by Duncan Bell, will be heard for the first time. The Clan Currie Society commissioned the tune to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the garden state.

The compilation CD “The Best of the Pipes of Christmas 1999-2012″ came out in 2013, and it is a charmer, a must for your Celtic Christmas playlist.

Proceeds from the concert support an extensive music scholarship program, which includes annual gifts to the National Piping Centre and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (both located in Glasgow,) the Gaelic College of Nova Scotia and Lyon College in Batesville, Arkansas. Proceeds also support the Society’s sponsorship of the US National Scottish Harp Championship, the Gaelic Literature Competition at the Royal National Mod and an annual academic research prize at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, Scotland’s Gaelic college on the Isle of Skye.

 Happy Holidays!

Love,

Gwen