Wednesday, November 15, 2023

MCTA and World Artists Experiences Presents "A History of Polish Women"


Frostburg’s Mountain City Traditional Arts, 25 E. Main Street, in partnership with World Artists Experiences will present a program on A History of Polish Women with Diplomat Katarzyna Rybka-Iwanska on Thursday, December 7 at 7 pm.

Rybka-Iwańska is a career diplomat and the head of public and cultural diplomacy at the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Washington, D.C.  She is an expert in strategic planning, especially in public and cultural diplomacy, as well as in educational, digital projects, and in promoting women’s stories. Katarzyna has repeatedly conducted workshops for educators, as well as delivered guest lectures and lessons on the subject of women's contributions to the history of Poland.

“Poland, its history, and its present can be portrayed in various ways,” said Rybka-Iwanska. “Personally, I find the most captivating approach is to narrate the story of my country through the remarkable women who have shaped it.”

This presentation will explore the stories of Polish women on the forefront of history- from Maria Skłodowska-Curie, the greatest female scientist in history, to Wanda Rutkiewicz, the fearless Himalayan climber; from Maria Siemionow, the author of the world's first nearly total face transplant, to the first Polish female parliamentarians; from Irena Sendler, the Polish nurse who saved hundreds of children from the Warsaw Ghetto, to Wisława Szymborska, the Polish poet beloved worldwide.

Tuesday, October 31, 2023

 The Jeremiahs Return to Frostburg’s Mountain City Traditional Arts, Sunday, Nov. 5


Frostburg State University’s Mountain City Traditional Arts will present the Jeremiahs on Sunday, Nov. 5, at 3 p.m. at 25 E. Main St. in Frostburg. The live entertainment is open to the public through general admission with a suggested donation of $15. 

Calling their music folk-traditional with an urban twist, the band has rapidly built a solid reputation in Ireland and beyond. They shape their sound with Dubliner Joe Gibney’s vocals, joined by vocalist Niamh Varian-Barry on fiddle, Julien Bruneteau from Brittany on whistle and flutes and Dublin-based James Ryan on guitar and bouzouki. They have travelled extensively, with a wonderful mixture of newly composed songs and tunes in the folk genre and a well-selected catalogue of older folk songs. 

A talented singer and songwriter with a melting pot of influences, Gibney, with his instantly recognizable timbre, offers a diverse repertoire of songs, from rousing sea shanties to emotional traditional songs of hardship, love and loss. 

Former lead singer of American supergroup “Solas” and multi-instrumentalist Varian-Barry is a musician and composer from Cork City with a unique and individual style. She has a reputation as an exceptional communicator of the arts. Her powerful vocals have been praised worldwide and she is a trained viola and fiddle player. 

Bruneteau hails from Bordeaux in France and began playing the flute at age 11. While studying jazz at the Conservatoire of Agen and attending the prestigious Didier Lockwood school in Paris, he immersed himself in the works of great artists such as Chris Potter, Stéphane Guillaume and Benoît Sourisse. Bruneteau is a flute player of great sensitivity with an amazing ability to improvise. 

Accompanist Ryan has amassed a wealth of experience, having already performed in more than 14 countries. He draws on a wide a range of influences from different genres and traditions, which is evident is his unique percussive backing style. An established teacher, Ryan is also an experienced sound engineer. 

MCTA is a program of FSU and a founding member of Maryland’s Folklife Network. It receives support from the Maryland Traditions Program of the State Arts Council. 

For more information, call 301-687-8040. 

FSU is committed to making all of its programs, services and activities accessible to persons with disabilities. To request accommodations through the ADA Compliance Office, call 301-687-3035 or use a Voice Relay Operator at 1-800-735-2258. 

Monday, October 16, 2023

Traditional Irish Music with Ivan Goff, Brenda Castles, Liz Hanley, and Jefferson Hamer

Mountain City Traditional Arts presents Traditional Irish Music on Wednesday, November 1 at 7 pm. The performance features some of the tradition’s most in demand musicians including Brenda Castles on Concertina, Liz Hanley on Fiddle and Song, Ivan Goff on Uilleann Pipes and Flute, and Jefferson Hammer, on Guitar and Song. Independently, each musician has a stellar reputation in Irish music. Collectively, they bring to the stage a powerhouse performance. 

Ivan Goff is from Dublin and is a member of Irish traditional band Danú. He has performed/toured worldwide in duets and ensembles with many household names of Irish music including Iarla Ó Lionáird, Mícheál Ó Raghallaigh, Martin Hayes, John Doyle, Eileen Ivers, Cormac Breatnach, Dervish, and Lúnasa. With credits that range from film and theater to appearances with the New York Philharmonic, Ivan has also performed in Broadway productions such as Sting's The Last Ship, Come From Away, and Riverdance. Ivan has a PhD in music from NYU and MAs in music from UCD and Queens, Belfast.

Brenda Castles is from Co. Meath and learned concertina from Mícheál Ó'Raghallaigh. She has two solo albums of Irish music on concertina and performed regularly with Mick Moloney's Green Fields of America collective. She has recently performed solo concerts for the Consairtín festival in Ennis, Temple Bar TradFest, Meath Beo and the Pipers Club in Dublin. This year Brenda has produced a short film called 'Plight of the Bumble Bee' for which she composed a traditionally inspired soundtrack.

Jefferson Hamer is a guitarist, singer, and songwriter from Brooklyn, New York. He has toured and recorded albums with Anais Mitchell (Child Ballads, winner of a BBC2 Folk Award), Sarah Jarosz (as guitarist and harmony singer on her Grammy-nominated Blue Heron Suite), and Session Americana. The Murphy Beds, his long-running traditional folk duo with Eamon O’Leary, has released two self-produced albums, about which the Huffington Post wrote, “[the album] bears repeated listening from start to finish, with ten beautiful, crystalline songs.” His original songs and lead guitar work are featured on Alameda, an acoustic and electric collaboration with bassist Jeff Picker and drummer John Fatum, featuring special guests from the NYC folk community and beyond.

Liz Hanley is a Brooklyn based fiddle player, violinist, singer and performer across many genres. Vents Magazine states “Liz Hanley is a singer with the sort of crystal-clear, instantly ingratiating voice that has always been a hallmark of progressive folk-rock” and Irish Music Magazine write “Liz Hanley has that uncanny knack and the distinctive voice to reawaken our interest in the familiar…” Hanley has toured globally with the late great Dr. Mick Moloney and The Green Fields of America, the pop-infused prog-folk-rock band Frogbelly And Symphony and symphonic rock band Emanuel and the Fear. Hanley’s debut album of songs and tunes in the Irish tradition "The Ecstasy of St Cecilia" was hailed a “gentle work of beauty” by FolkWorld.

Located at 25 E. Main Street, Frostburg, Mountain City Traditional Arts is a program of Frostburg State University and a founding member of Maryland’s Folklife Network. It receives support from the Maryland Traditions Program of the State Arts Council. For more information call 301-687-8040. 


Tuesday, September 26, 2023

Irish Duo Niamh Parsons and Graham Dunne at MCTA


Frostburg’s Mountain City Traditional Arts, presents Irish Folk Duo Niamh Parsons and Graham Dunne on Sunday, October 15, at 4 pm. With a penchant for Irish ballads, Niamh Parsons is considered one of the most distinctive voices in Irish music. Paired with Dublin native Graham Dunne, a versatile guitarist and expert accompannist, their performances are simultaneously haunting, heartwarming, and sublime. 

Described in the Boston Herald as both emotionally haunting and tonally as clear as crystal, Parsons albums have been ‘must-have’ collector’s items for any lover of songs and singing and many consider her one of the best. With 9 Albums to her name, Parsons has gathered a body of songs from many sources, both traditional and modern songwriters.

Growing up in Dublin, Parson’s music-loving parents brought herself and her sister to the local folk club in The Old Shieling Hotel in Raheny, where the young girls were exposed to songs and singing from the likes of The Johnstons, Emmet Spiceland, Sweeney’s Men, Dolly McMahon, Danny Doyle and many of the other musicians and singers that were playing in Folk clubs at that time. ‘My father was a great singer, and on long journeys the family used to sing in the car – I don’t remember a time in my life when I was not singing – I love songs.’

Parsons developed this love into a passion for collecting songs. She is always on the lookout for songs that speak to her – listening to new albums, scouring the Traditional Music Archives in Dublin, sharing notes with a network of friends and other singers. Once she discovers a song she likes, Niamh views herself as the vehicle for the music. ‘For me the song is more important than listening to my voice’, she says. ‘I consider myself more a songstress than a singer – a carrier of tradition.’

 Born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1974, Graham Dunne is a multi-talented and versatile musician.  Graham spent a great number of years living in County Clare and while there, was very much involved in the Irish Traditional music scene, having had the pleasure of accompanying a vast array of wonderfully talented local musicians during that time. Dunne and Parsons have a long-standing musical collaboration, having toured together since 1999.

Dunne  is also a musician of eclectic taste, and his musical explorations have seen him dabble in Jazz, Flamenco and Indian music, even going so far as to study tabla for a time, which he now plays at sessions regularly in Dublin. This eclecticism has led to the accumulation of a vast repertoire of material,

Located at 25 E. Main Street, Frostburg, Mountain City Traditional Arts is a program of Frostburg State University and a founding member of Maryland’s Folklife Network. It receives support from the Maryland Traditions Program of the State Arts Council. For more information call 301-687-8040. 

 


 

 

Wednesday, March 22, 2023

Brazilian Duo, Duovau, to perform at Mountain City Traditional Arts 


Frostburg’s Mountain City Traditional Arts in partnership with World Artists Experiences, presents the Brazilian Duo, Duovau, Sunday, April 30 at 4 pm.

Exploring the rich diversity of Brazil’s vibrant traditional music scene, two Brazilian musicians from different musical traditions come together to present a canvas portraying their country’s rich musical landscape. The duo features Levi Ramiro, a violeiro (viola brasileira player), singer and composer who has his roots in folk music from Brazil, and Esdras Rodrigues, a rabequeiro (rabeca brasileira player), who built a career as a professional violinist, but who also, two decades ago, fell in love with the Brazilian fiddles. Together, this talented duo takes listeners on a tour of evocative Brazilian musical genres, exploring rich expressive and rhythmic content, couched in geographical, social, and cultural aspects of Brazil.

Duovau draws inspiration from music played all over Brazil in violas brasileiras and rabecas, gathering a collection of rhythms and unique elements extracted from the rich musical and cultural universe of Brazilian regions to create its music, which lies within the boundaries of Brazilian contemporary instrumental music. Together, they share their extensive individual journeys and personal experiences along the many veredas within Brazilian music.



Young People's Acoustic Jam


 


MCTA to Host Grammy Award-Winning Lisa Gutkin in “Call in the Klezmorim” 

Frostburg State University’s Mountain City Traditional Arts will present Grammy Award-winning Lisa Gutkin in “Call in the Klezmorim” on Sunday, April 2, at 4 p.m. at 25 E. Main St. in Frostburg. The live entertainment is open to the public through general admission with a suggested donation of $15. 

In addition to the afternoon concert, musicians will offer a workshop at 1 p.m. providing a brief history of Klezmer music and exploring Klezmer rhythms. 

During the pandemic, klezmorim (klezmer musicians) all over the world did online forums, festivals, videos and classes. In Brooklyn, N.Y., they held concerts on porches and stoops and had sessions in Prospect Park. A native New Yorker, Gutkin was deeply moved by how the community gathered despite the necessary distancing. 

“Call in the Klezmorim” – a name that was inspired by the song “Klezmorimlekh mayne libinke” (“Beloved Klezmorim, My Dear Ones”) – grew from that feeling of camaraderie. It is Gutkin’s invocation for musicians to gather and an opportunity for her to showcase some of the finest Klezmer players and composers. 

Featured in the MCTA concert are Gutkin, a longtime member of the Grammy Award-winning Klezmatics, on violin and vocals; Ilya Shneyveys on accordion and bass; Matt Darriau on clarinet and kaval; and Pete Rushefsky on tsimbl, the Eastern European hammered dulcimer. They will play traditional and original songs, freylekhn (dance tunes), doyne (mournful improvisatory pieces) and dobriden (tunes for greeting wedding guests), as well as share stories about their experiences. 

This event is supported by funding from the Maryland State Arts Council. MCTA is a program of FSU in partnership with the Maryland Traditions Program of the State Arts Council. 

For more information, call 301-687-8040 or email Dr. Kara Rogers Thomas at krogersthomas@frostburg.edu 

FSU is following CDC guidance based on current area conditions. For current health and safety guidelines visit www.frostburg.edu/COVID19 

FSU is committed to making all of its programs, services and activities accessible to persons with disabilities. To request accommodations through the ADA Compliance Office, call 301-687-3105 or use a Voice Relay Operator at 1-800-735-2258. 

 Antje Duvekot and Ellis Paul to Perform at MCTA

World renown singer-songwriters Antje Duvekot and Ellis Paul will share the stage of Mountain City Traditional Arts, 25 E. Main Street, Frostburg, Sunday, March 26 at 4 pm. The show is open to the public with a suggested donation of $15.

Originally born in Germany and transplanted to the US as a young teen, Antje Duvekot began to hone her observational skills through a lens of biculturalism when she picked up a guitar during that move. Some years later, the confessional folk of Dar Williams and Ani DiFranco gave her license to share her observations, no matter how personal, in her first emerging songs. She has never let go of that tenet of vulnerability.

"Duvekot has gotten hotter, faster than any local songwriter in recent memory. Her songs feel at once fresh faced and firmly rooted, driven by the whispery sensuality of her voice. She believes in the redemptive power of the shared secret; and is utterly unafraid to mine the darkest corners of her life for songs that turn fear into resilience and isolation into community.” The Boston Globe

Antje has extensive touring experience. She is a compelling live performer and has been invited to play top festivals, such as the Newport Folk Festival, Mountain Stage, Philadelphia, and Kerrville Festivals and others. Internationally, she's headlined the Celtic Connections Festival in Scotland and the Tonder Festival in Denmark. Antje has won some of the top songwriting awards, including the Grand Prize in the John Lennon Songwriting Competition and the "Best New Folk Award" at Kerrville. In one of the nation's top music markets, she won the Boston Music Award for "Outstanding Folk Act". She has appeared on various NPR programs.

Though some may refer to Ellis Paul as a folk singer, he is more, for lack of a better word, a singular storyteller, a musician whose words reach out from inside and yet also express the feelings, thoughts and sensibilities that most people can relate to in one way or another, regardless of age or upbringing. The exhilaration of the open road. A celebration of heroes. The hope for redemption. Descriptions of those things that are both near and dear. The sharing of love..., intimate, passionate and enduring.

His music has been shared through commercials, documentaries, TV shows and in the soundtracks of several blockbuster films, among them three by the Farrelly Brothers -- “Hall Pass” , “Me, Myself, & Irene”  and “Shallow Hal”.

“Some artists document their lives through their music. Others chronicle their times. It’s a rare artist who can do both, telling their own story through songs that also encapsulate the essence of people and places who have helped define their era overall. Woody Guthrie comes to mind, and so does Bob Dylan. Bruce Springsteen certainly as well. Yet few others, for whatever genius they may possess, can relate their own history to the history experienced by those who find that common bond, be it in a coming of age, living through the same realities or sharing similar experiences. Ellis Paul is one of those gifted singer/songwriters.”- Lee Zimmerman (writer/reviewer for American Songwriter, No Depression, New Times, Country Standard Time, Blurt, Relix, and M Music and Musicians )

Mountain City Traditional Arts is a program of Frostburg State University and the Maryland Traditions Program of the State Arts Council. For more information call 301-687-8040. 

Tuesday, February 21, 2023

Celtic Duo Nuala Kennedy and Eamon O'Leary to Perform at MCTA

Acclaimed Celtic musicians and singers Nuala Kennedy and Eamon O’Leary return to Frostburg for a performance at Mountain City Traditional Arts, 25 E. Main Street, on Sunday, March 5, at 4 pm.

Long-time friends and musical collaborators, Nuala Kennedy and Eamon O’ Leary have toured together widely, both in duo and as part of The Alt, alongside celebrated Irish guitarist John Doyle. Both are internationally recognized members of the traditional music community, noted for their instrumental skills and diverse repertoire of traditional and contemporary song. Both are songwriters, who love and research traditional Irish/Scottish songs. With an engaging stage presence and understated virtuosity, they present a timeless selection of songs and instrumentals. Nuala and Eamon offer a memorable concert experience, as their songs range from the ancient Irish tradition to reflections on the present day.

Traditional singer, flute player, songwriter and session musician Nuala Kennedy grew up playing music in Dundalk, Ireland, and later moved to Edinburgh, Scotland. The combination of the best of two cultures, Scotland and Ireland, is what has made Nuala the artist she is today. She has toured and recorded with diverse artists including experimental folk composer Oliver Schroer (nominated for Canada’s National East Coast Music Award) and Kentucky’s Will Oldham (an album which received 5 stars in Mojo Magazine). Nuala released her third solo record ‘Noble Stranger’ (Compass Records) in 2012 to critical acclaim. The Nuala Kennedy Band was nominated in the 2013 BBC Alba Scottish Traditional Folk Awards.

Originally from Dublin, singer, guitarist and bouzouki player Eamon O’Leary has lived in New York City for the last twenty years, touring extensively throughout North America and Europe.  Recent work includes a recording of traditional songs, The Murphy Beds, with Jefferson Hamer. Eamon is a highly respected accompanist, a beautifully talented singer-songwriter and interpreter of traditional Irish song.  Eamon’s songwriting can be heard on the albums ‘All Souls’ and ‘Old Clump’.

Mountain City Traditional Arts is a program of Frostburg State University and the Maryland Traditions Program of the State Arts Council. For more information call 301-687-8040.