New Massachusetts Celtic show coming to the Shalin Liu Performance Center August 23-25

(Rockport, Mass., July 23, 2019) – Rockport Music and Brian O’Donovan are pleased to announce the inaugural year of the Rockport Celtic Festival: Exploring Celtic Roots and

Branches, coming to the Shalin Liu Performance Center in Rockport, August 23-25.

Led by Brian O’Donovan, host of WGBH’s A Celtic Sojourn, A St. Patrick’s Day Celtic Sojourn, and A Christmas Celtic Sojourn, and Artistic Director Edinburgh-born harpist/composer Maeve Gilchrist, Exploring Celtic Roots & Branches will feature new and familiar musicians, singers, dancers, and storytellers exploring traditional and contemporary music from around the Celtic world. Focusing on the genre’s broad and vibrant range, with a strong emphasis on crossover and collaborative work between musicians from different genres including classical, jazz, and American traditional, this dynamic and interactive weekend will feature mainstage concerts, workshops, intimate salon-style sessions and much more in Shalin Liu Performance Center’s third-floor space.

“Exploring Celtic Roots and Branches will truly immerse Celtic music fans who attend in all facets of the Celtic world,” said O’Donovan. “From concerts to intimate sessions, traditional to contemporary music and dance, this will be a gathering, rarely, if ever, seen before. We are thrilled to share this with the community and hope that this is the festival’s first year of many.”

The festival begins on Friday, August 23rd at 7:00pm with The Celtic /Appalachian Journey, a concert that will showcase the evolution of Irish and Scottish Music. The concert will be hosted by Gilchrist and O’Donovan with a number of special guests including fiddler Jenna Moynihan, harpist Mairi Chaimbeul , piper Stuart Jackson and dancer Kevin Doyle. The closing performance, Songs and Stories From the Sea, begins on Sunday, August 25th at 5:00pm as a celebratory farewell concert full of songs and stories of the sea.

A full schedule of Brian O’Donovan’s Rockport Celtic Festival: Exploring Celtic Roots and Branches is below. Tickets available at https://rockportmusic.org/rockport-celtic-festival/or by calling the Box Office at 978.546.7391. Tickets must be purchased separately for each event.

Friday, August 23, 7:00pm

The Celtic/Appalachian Journey

Friday, August 23, 10:00pm

Celtic Session Upstairs

Saturday, August 24, 2:00pm

Celtic Workshop: Harmony and traditional song accompaniment

Saturday, August 24, 7:00pm

Strings on Strings

Saturday, August 24, 10:00pm

Celtic Session Upstairs

Sunday, August 25, 2:00pm

Words & Music/The Celtic Spirit

Sunday, August 25, 5:00pm

Closing Concert: Songs and Stories From the Sea

ABOUT ROCKPORT MUSIC

Founded in 1981 as the Rockport Chamber Music Festival, Rockport Music presents exceptional concerts and cultural events in the “stunning acoustics and dramatic setting” (Boston Globe) of the Shalin Liu Performance Center. Best known for its summer chamber music festival featuring some of the world’s finest ensembles and soloists, Rockport Music has expanded its offerings to include year-round presentations of jazz, folk, pop, and world music, high-definition broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera and National Theatre (London), and special film presentations. Education and community outreach activities serve nearly 10,000 students and adults throughout Cape Ann and the North Shore annually.

Rockport Music is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization and is supported in part by the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

ABOUT WGBH

WGBH Boston is America’s preeminent public broadcaster and the largest producer of PBS content for TV and the Web, including Masterpiece, Antiques Roadshow, Frontline, Nova, American Experience, Arthur and more than a dozen other primetime, lifestyle and children’s series. WGBH’s television channels include WGBH 2, WGBX 44, and the digital channels World and Create. WGBH TV productions focusing on the region’s diverse community include Greater Boston, Basic Black and High School Quiz Show. WGBH Radio serves listeners across New England with 89.7 WGBH, Boston’s Local NPR®; 99.5 WCRB Classical Radio Boston; and WCAI, the Cape and Islands NPR® Station. WGBH also is a major source of digital content and programs for public radio through PRI/PRX, including The World and Innovation Hub, a leader in educational multimedia with PBS LearningMedia™, providing the nation’s educators with free, curriculum-based digital content, and a pioneer in services that make media accessible to deaf, hard of hearing, blind and visually impaired audiences. WGBH has been recognized with hundreds of honours: Emmys, Peabodys, duPont-Columbia Awards and Oscars.

Find more information at wgbh.org