Celtic Fiddle Festival

Many had asked when the Folk Music Society would be bringing Irish fiddler Kevin Burke back, and they'd been working on that for awhile. Sometimes things just fall into place, and we are not only getting Kevin, but we have the entire Celtic Fiddle Festival!

Celtic Fiddle Festival consists of fiddlers Kevin Burke (Ireland), Christian Lemaître (Brittany, France), and André Brunet (Québec), joined by guitarist Nicolas Quemener (Brittany). This super-group of Celtic fiddling celebrated its 20th anniversary of performing in 2013, and throughout its existence has been all about energy, excitement, and excellent musicianship. Celtic Fiddle Festival was originally formed by Kevin, Silly Wizard's Johnny Cunningham, and Christian Lemaître, and it was a brilliant scheme to bring different traditions of Celtic fiddling together. Upon Johnny Cunningham's sudden, untimely death, replacing him with another Scottish fiddler seemed impossible, so they eventually reached out to an entirely different branch of Celtic music tradition, that of Quebec, once again with stunning results.

The Philadelphia Weekly described them as "among the world's greatest Celtic fiddlers…breathtaking virtuosity." The Washington Postwrote, "Three of the finest folk violinists anywhere. A mastery of regional fiddle styles with alternately soulful, dazzling and nuanced performances."

We're very proud to have this ensemble in our series and we hope you will join us!