Schedule of Events
- To reserve tickets email jsullivan@unity.edu
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Raz de Marée
Thursday, May 17 at 7:30 p.m.
Raz de Marée, or Tidal Wave, with its cross-border personnel from Quebec and New England, invites cultures to meet and share the love of traditional music and dance. Since 2003, Raz de Marée has evolved as a dance band, carrying through time the most relevant aspect of Quebec traditional, instrumental music: playing for live dancing. In that sense they are not reflecting the past but writing the book of a strong, living current.Their liveliness and outgoing personalities have led them to teach workshops and school programs, as well as perform concerts on the folk music planet and wherever Franco-Americans need to connect with their roots. Tickets $15.
Ennis from Newfoundland
Thursday, May 24 at 7:30 p.m.
ENNIS is a dynamic, JUNO award winning original group with a unique contemporary voice, flavored by deep roots and Celtic traditional Newfoundland influences. Maureen and Karen are powerful, interesting and humorous story tellers with a broad mix of Maureen’s accessible original songs and uniquely interpreted tunes and ballads. With 7 albums (1 Gold) and inclusion on countless compilations CD’s (2 gold) to date, they have shared the stage and recorded with the Chieftains, toured with The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Jann Arden and Colin Linden among too many others to mention. Touring highlights include Playing for Canadian Troops in the middle east, the Millenium Celebration in St John’s Newfoundland, the Winnipeg Folk Festival, Stan Rogers Folk Festival, the Strawberry Music Festival (California), Merlefest (North Carolina), The Cleveland and Pittsburgh Irish festivals. They have also played Canada Day events on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada and Trafalgar Square in London, England. Tickets $15.
The Forge
Thursday, May 31 at 7:30 p.m.
The Forge Are: Maeve Gilchrist on Harp and voice. Born to an Irish mother and a Scottish father, Maeve grew up in Edinburgh Scotland under the influence of two harp playing aunts and immersed in the traditional music scene from a young age. At 17 Maeve was awarded a full scholarship to the Berklee College of Music in Boston where she started to put down roots in the American roots music scene. Some of Maeve’s performance highlights include the Celtic Connections Music Festival, the ICONS festival and the World Harp Festival. Fiddler Cara Frankowicz is a nationally renowned fiddle player who is currently based in Boston MA. Originally from Pennsylvania, In her early twenties Cara moved to Ireland, cutting her teeth on the cream of the Galway music scene. Cara has performed all over the world at events including the Philadelphia Irish Music Festival and has performed with artists such as the Chieftains and the Three Irish Tenors. Irish flutist Nicole Rabata is highly regarded both in and out of traditional music fields. She has toured America and Europe including appearances at International Flute Festivals in Stockholm and Lund (Sweden), Temple Bar Trad Fest in Dublin, the Hebridean Celtic Festival in Scotland, the National Flute Conventions in NYC and San Diego, WOMAD Festival in the UK and the Festival She spent four years in the west of Ireland where she immersed herself in the music and was influenced by the playing of many great musicians. She plays flutes by Patrick Olwell and Gilles Lehart. Anna Colliton is one of America’s leading exponents of the bodhrán, the traditional Irish frame drum. From Chicago, a city of Irish musical excellence, Anna plays a highly intricate style of drumming with masterful tonal and rhythmic variation. She has taught and performed at festivals across the country, including Milwaukee Irish Fest, Chicago Celtic Fest, the New York Irish Dance Festival, the O’Flaherty Irish Music Retreat, and the Dollywood Festival of Nations. Tickets $15.
Dwayne & Duane
Thursday, June 7 at 7:30 p.m.
Steeped in the rich musical traditions of Cape Breton and Newfoundland Dwayne Côté and Duane Andrews twist their inimitable blend of Canadian East Coast Celtic and Roots music with strands of Gypsy and Jazz sounds. Heavily influenced by the brilliance of master violinists such as Winston Fitzgerald and Jascha Heifetz and legendary Gypsy Jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt these stellar performers have been individually touring internationally for decades. In 2010 the two old friends combined forces to release their debut album which earned awards from MusicNL, Music Nova Scotia and the ECMA. Most recently they won the instrumental album category from the Independent Music Awards whose judges this year included Tom Waits, Seal and Ozzy Osbourne. Tickets $15.
Archie Fisher
Thursday, June 14 at 7:30 p.m.
An avid horseman and master guitarist, singer and songwriter Archie Fisher is Scotland’s foremost troubadour and is known throughout the country as the host of BBC Radio Scotland’s award-winning “Travelling Folk” show, which he has been presenting for over 25 years. Recognized for his contributions to Scottish folk music, he was inducted into the Scots Traditional Music Hall of Fame and in 2006 was awarded an MBE (Member of the British Empire), a prestigious honor nominated by his peers and bestowed by Queen Elizabeth. Archie was born in Glasgow into a large singing family, which yielded three professional singers—Archie and his sisters Ray and Cilla Fisher. Constant music combined with his father’s appreciation of many musical styles (opera, vaudeville, traditional ballads) proved to be a heavy influence on Archie’s music while his mother, a native Gaelic speaker from the Outer Hebrides, was a strong influence on the lyrical quality of his songwriting. Archie first became interested in folk music through the Skiffle era of the late 1950’s under the influences of performers such as Lonnie Donegan and Johnny Duncan. Later, the recording of the Weavers at Carnegie Hall also had a profound effect on his approach to music and his political outlook. During the TV folk boom of the 1960’s and 70’s he appeared regularly with his younger sister Ray in magazine programs and the BBC Hootenanny series. He was based in Edinburgh at the time in the contemporary company of musicians such as Robin Williamson, Clive Palmer and Mike Heron (who together formed the original Incredible String Band) and was an early guitar colleague of Bert Jansch. Tickets $15.
Dave Gunning
Thursday, June 21 at 7:30 p.m.
There are stories that wash over you like a tide, and then there are stories that grab you by the heart. Dave Gunning has made a point of finding the latter and wrapping them up in song since he broke upon the East Coast music scene in Canada back in 1997. The Pictou County, Nova Scotia born and bred singer-songwriter and working class hero has built up from humble beginnings to a point where his name is regularly included in conversation with artists such as David Francey, James Keelaghan, Ron Hynes, Stan Rogers, Bruce Cockburn and Gordon Lightfoot. Writing from a sonic menu that includes flavors of Irish, Scottish, French Acadian, folk and country musical styles, Dave Gunning transcends genre with songs that fill your senses and touch your soul. Dave was a painfully shy teenager who might never have gotten on stage if it weren’t for his junior high best friend JD Fortune (INXS). Fortune signed the two up for a variety concert where the sound man was none other than country singer/songwriter George Canyon (Nashville Star 2). Gunning backed Fortune on guitar for “La Bamba” before taking the mic for a Buddy Holly cover. Little did anyone know that in that room in a small East Coast school were three future stars. Fortune has shone brightest thus far, and Canyon isn’t far behind. But thirty years from now it seems likely that Dave Gunning will outshine them all.“Dave Gunning is the next big thing in the True North of Song, an artist as compelling, as assured and attentive to every nuance of the writing process as Lightfoot, Coburn and Stan Rogers before him.” — Greg Quill, The Toronto Star. Tickets $15.
Comas
Thursday, June 21 at 7:30 p.m.
Since march 2003 Comas have been together as a band, before that, they toured individually in top acts as The Drovers, Orion, Eileen Ivers, Urbantrad, Denez Prigent, and the internationally acclaimed Liz Carroll...to name just a few... Although coming from diverse musical backgrounds, and residing in different parts of the globe, they found eachother in their similiar approach to music, bringing together their many cultural influences to forge a unique blend of Traditional Irish music that literally had them, within months of coming together, playing on Major Festivals in Ireland/ Belgium/France/ England/ Denmark/ Holland. This achivement alone is worthy of note, and as further testimony to their deep rooted talents, being asked back immediately on every Festival they played on..."before we even had time to put our instruments away" as Philip, aptly put it. By the end of 2003 Comas had built up a sizable repution to be hailed in the press as: "The Revelation Of 2003" (S.Vandenberghe-NVFOLK) and as: "The best traditional band around"(Folkspot). When you hear Comas you'll know that their choice of name was no mere coincidence. (Translating from Irish/ Gaelic as POWER) And power is exactly what this band is about. Depicting their own driving power coupled with a fine sensitivity for the inner strands of magic that is inherent in Irish music. Here, their Fiddle player, Aidan Burke comes into his own, delving deep into his Irish roots to pluck out a pure sound that transcends time and place guaranteed to touch any lover of Celtic music. Aidan's dexterity is evenly matched by the awesome talents of Isaac Alderson (flutes, pipes), Philip Masure (Guitar) and Jackie Moran (percussion) "Comas plays enormously fast but with a lot of feelings"(S.feys-folkroddels) Comas are a band firmly rooted in Irish music, but with enough space to allow in original compositions.Open to new influences, but with a respectful eye on the past is what brings Comas to the fore-front of what traditional music is about today. Tickets $15.
For more information:
John Sullivan
General Manager
Phone: 207.948.SHOW (7469)
show@unitymaine.org