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The SCMA is proud to present to you what promises to be one of the most dynamic and exciting concerts we've yet produced. On Saturday, August 14, 2010, Mick Moloney and The Green Fields of America will take the stage at the McKinney Performing Arts Center and make it their own. If you have even a slight interest in Irish and folk music, you've heard Mick Moloney's work. He is the dean of Irish-American music, having inspired, trained and toured the best musicians in the United States. For more than thirty years this renowned musician and folklorist has led a stalwart group of Irish-American instrumentalists, singers and dancers in concerts from coast-to-coast. Though born in Ireland Moloney concentrates his efforts and interest on the Irish in America, and is an expert on the period during which the Irish were first attempting to integrate into American culture. The Green Fields of America is the vehicle by which he brings traditional Irish and Irish-American culture to American audiences, using American talent. The group was formed in 1978 after the Smithsonian Institution Festival of American Folklife presented traditional Irish music and dance in the nation’s capital in a multi-cultural setting for the first time. Mick was hired by the Smithsonian Institution to carry out research in several major American cities to locate the best Irish musicians and dancers in the country. For one unforgettable week on the Mall in front of the Lincoln Memorial, 26 of the best musicians, singers and dancers in the land performed alongside 26 Irish performers brought from Ireland. The response was overwhelming. Since that time the personnel has changed, but the concept has remained constant over thirty years: to show in one major group some of Irish America’s finest musicians and dancers. This group was the first on either side of the Atlantic to bring together Irish vocal, instrumental and dance traditions on the concert and festival stage. Sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts a record five times, the group has toured the United States constantly since the late 1970’s. Among those who got their start performing with The Green Fields are Seamus Egan, Eileen Ivers, Marie Reilly, Donny Golden, and Jean Butler and Michael Flatley of Riverdance fame. Certainly a who's who of Irish music and dance tradition. And now they are bringing that tradition to you. An evening with Mick Moloney‘s Green Fields of America is an unforgettable experience. They perform a brilliant repertoire of slow airs, jigs, reels, and hornpipes accompanied by exciting, virtuoso Irish dancing from World Champion step dancers, as well as a variety of traditional and contemporary songs in Gaelic and English. These include love songs, humorous songs, patriotic songs, songs of emigration and settlement, Irish American songs from variety theater and vaudeville, and the myriad other themes that have made the Irish oral literature and song tradition among the richest in the Western world. All this is linked by the urbane, informative and witty commentary for which the group is renowned. They have a rare capacity to appeal to folk and Irish music devotees and general audiences of any age. Mick's current group includes Robbie O'Connell, guitar and vocals; Athena Tergis, fiddle; Billy McComiskey, accordian; John Doyle, guitar, and Mick himself on tenor banjo, mandolin, guitar and vocals. Any one of these folks alone would provide a terrific evening's entertainment; to have them all together is an embarrassment of riches indeed! |
Reserved seating only. For information call 214-544-4630 |
