PHILLIPS — International band The Forge will bring traditional music of Scotland and Ireland to the Phillips Area Community Hall on Tuesday, May 29; and Skye Theatre Performing Arts Center in Carthage on Wednesday, May 30.
The quartet of females — harpist/singer Maeve Gilchrist, bodhran player Anna Colliton, fiddler Cara Frankowicz and flutist Nicole Rabata — will also play Thursday, May 31, at Unity College Centre for the Performing Arts in Unity.
Born to an Irish mother and Scottish father, Gilchrist grew up in Edinburgh, Scotland under the influence of two harp playing aunts. At 17, she 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 her performance highlights include the Celtic Connections Music Festival, the ICONS festival and the World Harp Festival.
Frankowicz, a nationally renowned fiddle player, is now based in Boston. Originally from Pennsylvania, she moved to Ireland while in her twenties. She has performed worldwide and with such acclaimed artists as the Chieftains and the Three Irish Tenors.
Highly regarded both in and out of traditional music fields, Rabata has toured America and Europe. Most recently, she spent two months in India where she performed and taught music in the rural Himalayas. 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.
Colliton is one of America’s leading exponents of the bodhran, the traditional Irish frame drum. From Chicago, she plays a highly intricate style of drumming with masterful tonal and rhythmic variation. She has taught and performed at festivals across the country and has numerous recording credits, recently on Cherish the Ladies’ “A Star in the East” and Grainne Murphy’s “Short Stories.” She teaches advanced bodhran at the Irish Arts Center in New York City.
The concert, presented by New England Celtic Arts, will be at 7 p.m. at the Phillips Community Center on Depot Street; at 7 p.m. at Skye Theater on Highland Drive off Winter Hill Road; and at 7:30 p.m. at UCCPA, 42 Depot St. Tickets are $15 at the door. For reservations, call Phillips at 639-3717, Skye Theatre at 562-4445 or UCCPA at 948-7469
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- Harpist/singer Maeve Gilchrist, bodhran player Anna Colliton, fiddler Cara Frankowicz and flutist Nicole Rabata, aka The Forge, will give three concerts in late May in Phillips, Carthage and Unity.
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