The Rockport Celtic Music Festival is on the horizon!

In partnership with Rockport Music, Edinburgh-born harpist/composer Maeve Gilchrist and WGBH’s Brian O’Donovan proudly present the 4th Annual Rockport Celtic Festival celebrating the music of both the Celtic and French diaspora in Eastern Canada. As always, the Festival features a wide and quite extraordinary variety of new and familiar musicians, singers and storytellers.

Featuring:

Maeve Gilchrist and Brian O’Donovan, co-artistic directors

Genticorum, Matthew Byrne, Kimberley Fraser & Troy MacGillivray, Eilis Kennedy, Tatiana Hargreaves & Allison De Groot, Yasmin Williams, Seamus Egan, Kyle Sanna, Lena Jonsson, David Coffin, Rakish, Katie McNally, Kevin Henderson

Schedule of Events:

September 14, 2023:

7:30 PM: Festival Club: Rakish

The fantastic duo Rakish with violinist Maura Shawn Scanlin and guitarist Conor Hearn bring an evening of Irish and American folk tunes! Grab a drink at the bar and settle in for this folk-club style concert, hosted by Maeve Gilchrist to kickstart the festival in style!

Location: Third Floor Reception Hall

September 15, 2023:

7:00 PM: Quebec To Newfoundland

A celebration of the Celtic and French diaspora in Eastern Canada and it’s connected musical traditions. Bringing together some of the brightest lights in the Cape Breton, Quebec and Newfoundland Music scene, this evening celebrates the melting pot of traditions that make up the unique and diverse musical traditions of Eastern Canada. French settler culture, the Irish fishing industry, Mass migration from Scotland and of course, the indigenous music of the first nations in Canada will feature in this foot stomping evening of music!

9:30 PM: Festival Club: Ceilidh

Boston-based Scottish fiddler Katie McNally, Shetland fiddler Kevin Henderson and local guitar-whiz Conor Hearn team up for an exhilarating evening of fiddle music and dance. Grab a drink at the bar and settle in for this informal session-style evening full of tunes, connection and a few surprise cameos! Don’t forget your dancing shoes!

Location: Third Floor Reception Hall

September 16, 2023:

11:00 AM: Salon Session With Maeve Gilchrist

An up-close look at the artistry, history and process of some of our artists with interactive discussion and a mini-performance. Featuring traditional Irish singer Eilis Kennedy, Newfoundland singer and multi-instrumentalist Mathew Byrne and Internationally-acclaimed Old Time duo, Tatiana Hargreaves and Alison De Groot.

Location: SLPC Third Floor

1:00 PM: “Pub” Sing with David Coffin

Come and join us for our first ever Free Rockport Celtic Festival pub-less, Pub Sing! led by our very own local Sea Shanty star, David Coffin, this event will bring together music-lovers from all kinds of backgrounds to raise the rafters and sing together as the spirit of the Rockport Festival leaves the theater and resonates through the town!

Free, no reservations required.

Location: Spiran Hall, Rockport

7:30 PM: Global Strings!

This evening features an all-star cast of some of the most innovative string voices across the globe. Featuring Maeve Gilchrist on the Celtic Harp, the groundbreaking guitarist Yasmin Williams and innovative Old-time duo Tatiana Hargreaves and Allison De Groot will have the audience reimagining what acoustic string music means as we take our respective time-old traditions and reframe them in a contemporary light. This is simply going to be a party that you’re not going to want to miss!

September 17, 2023:

12:00 PM: Words and Music: The Celtic Spirit

A meditative Sunday hour with poetry, prose and music. A spiritual celebration of the spoken word. Some of the poetry and prose of our great writers complemented by music sometimes underscoring, sometimes introducing, sometimes following, the spoken piece itself. A contemplative hour in the beautiful theater with a backdrop of the harbor. Maeve and Brian will host and be joined by a selection of participants in the Festival weekend.

5:00 PM: Letters From The Sea

Features the stunning voice of Irish singer Eilis Kennedy from Dingle, Ireland. In 2020, Kennedy, inspired by a series of letters written by Whaling fisherman that she found in the New Bedford Whaling Museum, wrote So Ends this day, an album of songs inspired by the sea and the men and women who make their lives around it. Kennedy will bring these letters and songs to life with an all-star cast of musicians from both sides of the Atlantic including readings by David Coffin, Brian O Donovan, Kyle Sanna, Maeve Gilchrist and many more.

Dates: September 14 - 17, 2023

Location:

Shalin Liu Performance Center,
37 Main Street,
Rockport, MA 01966.

Click here for more information.