Ceili tonight (Friday)

Irish Folk Dancing this Friday - 7:00 p.m. at First Christian Church, Columbia, Corner of Walnut and Tenth Streets
Music - Fiddler Jim Ruth will play music and Kat DiFoxfire will be teaching and calling the dances.
Beginners lesson starts at 7:00 p.m.,  Dancing starts at 7:30.
Non-dancing listeners/watchers are very welcome to attend! Come on out and socialize if you don't care to dance!
$5 admission for adults, kids 16 & under attend free.
No experience and no partner needed. Please wear clean, soft-soled shoes to protect the great wood floor.

Venue:
Unity Center of Columbia, 1600 W. Broadway at 7:00 p.m. 
(this is across Broadway from the Gerbes shopping center)

Tickets:
15 public / $12 current CMCAA members (you must have paid dues within the last year)
$5 kids 6 - 16 / ages 5 & under attend free. Young music fans are always welcome.
$8 students with student ID at the door.
Family pricing: $35 for 2 parents and multiple children ages 6 -16.

Concert Saturday, March 4 - Liz Carroll
Liz Carroll (that's the Most Excellent Liz Carroll to us mere mortals) and John Doyle (also Very Excellent) are coming to Columbia on Saturday March 4 to play a concert at The Unity Center at 1600 West Broadway. 

Good news! The online ticket buying page is now working properly. So, if you prefer to pay by credit card, you can purchase tickets online.  There will also be plenty of tickets at the door.

For more info about this concert, please see www.moceltic.org  and www.lizcarroll.com
PLEASE NOTE: There is a PDF poster for the show now on the web site. Please print a few copies and hang them in places you frequent:
Here's the link to the file: http://www.moceltic.org/Liz_Carroll-poster.pdf

A little about Liz and John...

Separately, they are geniuses of their instruments ­ exciting performers and composers who take the tradition of Irish music in daring, inventive, new directions. Together, Liz Carroll & John Doyle have combined their talents into dynamic live stage shows and recordings ­ including their first as a duet, which is scheduled for release in 2005 on Compass Records.

One of the masters of traditional Irish music living in America today, Chicago-born Liz Carroll has been amazing audiences with her fiddle ever since she won the Senior All-Ireland Championship at the age of 18. An award-winning recording artist known for her fiery performances full of inventiveness and intense emotion, Liz was awarded a Heritage Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts for her ongoing influence on Irish music in the US.

John Doyle is among the most talented and innovative musicians to come out of Ireland in recent years. An extraordinary acoustic guitarist as well as an accomplished singer and songwriter, John can be heard accompanying many top Irish artists and has performed on such film and TV soundtracks as The Brothers McMullen and Out of Ireland. An original member of the acclaimed group Solas, John’s turns as a record producer have created critically successful CD’s by Heidi Talbot (Cherish the Ladies), Liz Carroll, and his father, Sean Doyle. John’s second solo recording is scheduled for release in 2005 on Compass Records.

http://www.lizcarroll.com/

Cherish the Ladies will play in Jefferson City, and since this is the same night as our regular monthly CMCAA ceili, we are combining the two events.  The ceili will follow the concert right there at Richardson Auditorium, where we will dance on the stage. Tim Langen will play music and Christine Harker will call the dancing.  This is free to anyone attending the concert.

Harry Trickey, organizer of the Lincoln Univ. Share in the Arts series, http://w3.lincolnu.edu/~sita/ has offered front section seats at the price of the rear section tickets for CMCCAA members.

Reserved seating for CMCAA
If you plan to to attend the concert, and would like to sit in the reserved CMCAA section, please send me a note (kakers@moceltic.org) with the number of people attending. You can buy your tickets at the door and say that you are with our group. If you have already purchased tickets, I think we can work it out so you can swap for seats in the front section.  I just need an estimate for Harry of how many people want to participate in this offer, so please send me a note if you would like to sit in the CMCAA reserved section.

Celtic Book Club News
Next meeting for the Celtic-themed CMCAA book club is
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 6:00 p.m. at Cherry Street Artisan

From Booklist :
Mount Brandon is one of Ireland's highest and holiest mountains. Located in the far southwest, on the famous Dingle Peninsula of County Kerry, Brandon raises its gray head into seaside clouds. A pilgrim's path winding up the mountainside is traveled year-round by those searching for inspiration from nature and nature's creator. In late summer, near the Celtic feast of Lughnasa, the annual "pattern" of the area includes a ritual ascent of the mountain. In carefully wrought, short essays, philosopher and scientist Raymo uses his own decades-long knowledge of the mountain as a springboard for meditations on the juncture of science and spirituality. Raymo, longtime science columnist of the Boston Globe, shows how science, far from being in conflict with spirit, can inspire and illuminate the mystical mind. Not only for those interested in Ireland, this fine, short book should appeal to readers interested in earth spirituality as well. Patricia Monaghan

For more info, see http://moceltic.org/book-club.html or contact Erin Clair, eccvwf@mizzou.edu

Tionol -- Irish music workshops
The St Louis Tionol and Mississippi River Celtic Festival features a full day of music workshops with master musicians, music sessions and a huge concert featuring all the musician-instructors.

Featured instructors this year includeGed Foley (begining fiddle), John Carty (advanced fiddle), Tommy Martin and Michael Cooney teaching Uilleann pipes, John Skelton teaching flute, and Albert Alfonso will teach bodhran repair,  construction and manufacture.

Tionol schedule and list of workshops/performers:
www.tionol.org

Irish Immersion Weekend

Craic, Ceol agus Caint will be in abundance in St. Louis the weekend of March 31, April 1 and 2.  Tionól and Cumann na Gaeilge have combined with Oideas Gael, County Donegal, Ireland, to hold an Irish Language Immersion Weekend in conjunction with Tionól 2006.   Attendees will study Irish with native speakers Friday evening, all day Saturday and half-day Sunday.   They will be able to join the céili and the concert Friday and Saturday evenings.  And, of course, there will be plenty of craic all around.

The price of the weekend is $175 which includes language classes, admission to both the céili at Schlafley's Taproom and the concert at the Sheldon Concert Hall, and a sit-down dinner Saturday and farewell lunch Sunday with the other language students and faculty.

Irish immersion weekend information: WWW.CNAGSTL.ORG

Saturday, March 11 -- there will be a concert and music session at The Chez in Columbia to celebrate St. Patrick's Day a little early.  Tim Langen and his brother will play music, followed by an open session for anyone who would like to play. More details on this will be posted on the web site shortly.

Chulrua will return to Columbia for a concert on Sunday, May 21.  They are about to release a new CD, the first with fiddler Patrick Ourceau as well as Paddy O'Brien and Pat Egan

Plans for the Summer Celtic Arts Program are shaping up.  Deirdre Harnedy, our 2004 artist-in-residence will return for 3 weeks of classes and performance. The planned dates for classes are June 12 - June 29. She will teach fiddle, flute/whistle and tunes by ear for all instruments.  We are also in the planning process for a 5-day kids Celtic arts camp to be held during this period. More details will be available soon.

Local and Regional Celtic Events Calendar

Note --  There is a new web site for all things Irish in St. Louis:
http://www.irishinstlouis.com/index2.html

Irish set dancing occurs at two locations in Columbia every week, one group meets on Tuesday evenings and the other meets on Wednesday evenings.  You can contact Kat Difoxfire 573-214-2102 or Rune Sharp 573-875-4836 for more information.

Irish music slow jam occurs every Wednesday evening from 7:30 - 9. Contact Sherry Borcherding at borcherdings@health.missouri.edu  for more information.

All local and regional events that I hear about get posted on the web calendar here:
http://moceltic.org/calendar.html

It's updated frequently, so please check often. If you hear of an event, send me a note, because I might not already know!
kakers@moceltic.org