Máire Ní Chathasaigh & Chris Newman in Concert

Legendary Irish harper and tradition-bearer Máire Ní Chathasaigh and extraordinary English acoustic guitar virtuoso Chris Newman present a breathtaking blend of traditional Irish music, hot jazz, striking new compositions, bluegrass and baroque with warmth, wit, dazzling virtuosity and spellbinding lyricism.

Learn More about Máire and Chris here: www.maireandchris.com

Doors at 7:30 pm | Show at 8:00 pm

Free Parking

About Máire:

Máire is “the doyenne of Irish harp players” (SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY), “an absolute legend" (THE IRISH ECHO) and 2001 recipient of Irish music’s most prestigious Award, Gradam Ceoil TG4 – Musician of the Year - “for the excellence and pioneering force of her music, the remarkable growth she has brought to the music of the harp in Ireland and for the positive influence she has had on the young generation of harpers.”

A multiple All-Ireland and Pan-Celtic winner, Máire developed profoundly influential techniques for harp performance of traditional Irish music in the 1970s and in 1985 recorded the first harp album ever to concentrate on traditional Irish dance music, The New-Strung Harp - "a masterpiece of virtuosity… a mile-stone in Irish harp music" (THE EVENING ECHO) - which was re-mastered and reissued in 2023.

She has subsequently made seven duo albums with guitarist Chris Newman, two quartet albums with theHeartstring Quartet and a trio album, Sibling Revelry, with her sisters (The Casey Sisters) - all critically-acclaimed. Her "celebrated virtuoso partnership" (THE DAILY TELEGRAPH) with guitarist Chris Newman has toured in twenty-three countries to venues ranging from the tiniest of village halls to palaces in Kyoto and Istanbul, London’s Barbican, Sydney Town Hall and Cologne's Philharmonie.

A TV documentary about Máire and her sister Nollaig was broadcast on Ireland’s national Irish-language TV station TG4 in November 2020, as part of its 'Sé mo Laoch series.

About Chris: 

Chris is "a brilliant English master of the acoustic guitar" (THE DAILY TELEGRAPH), one of the world's finest flat-picking guitarists and a gifted improviser who has toured and recorded with many luminaries of the folk and jazz worlds, among them Aly Bain, Boys of the Lough, Kathryn Tickell, Diz Disley and Stéphane Grappelli. He is an award-winning composer and record producer, receiving a silver disc for producing "The Oldest Swinger in Town", a Top 10 hit for comedian Fred Wedlock. He was principal guitar and mandolin tutor for Newcastle University’s Folk B.Mus degree course for twenty-one years, since its inception, and many of his alumni form the new wave of British acoustic guitarists and mandolinists currently to be seen gracing festivals around the world, among them members of Talisk, the Elephant Sessions, the Tea Pad Orchestra, Kate Rusby Band etc. He has been a visiting tutor at the University of Limerick, the University of Ulster and the Carl Nielsen Institute,

Denmark, and is a popular instructor at guitar festivals and camps around the world. A "dazzling player” (ACOUSTIC GUITAR, USA), he is one of the very few guitarists who excel in Celtic, European swing jazz and American bluegrass styles.

His fifth solo album, Breaking Bach, featuring his arrangements for steel-strung flatpicked guitar of sonatas and partitas written by JS Bach for solo instruments, was released in July, 2021. The project is quite ground-breaking - a recording of this music on steel-strung flatpicked guitar has not been attempted until now.