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View Gigs by Date 29 Sept - 9 Oct |
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THE MUSIC THAT CROSSED THE ATLANTIC... THE ROOTS OF NORTH AMERICAN FOLK MUSIC AND DANCE This year Open House Festival has taken a musical journey across the Atlantic, following the route that has been taken for the past three hundred years by pilgrims and emigrants from Ireland and Britain, and in particular the Scots-Irish. The Appalachian Mountains have become a melting pot for different cultural and musical influences from England, Ireland and Scotland, as well as from other cultures including Africa. The area has produced a rich new branch of the traditional music tree, giving us the likes of Old-Time Mountain music and Bluegrass, Sacred Harp or Shape Note singing, as well as dance styles like Flatfooting and Clogging. Open House Festival is this year bringing a host of American artists to Belfast, including two artists-in-residence, Tim Eriksen and Ira Bernstein. Through concerts, workshops and sessions, these superb artists will be demonstrating and passing on their skills, and the living traditions that they represent. |
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Born in Massachusetts, he has absorbed a love of America’s history and of early music from New England as well as from the Appalachian Mountains.
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Tim’s achievements are too many to list, but highlights of his career to date include arranging and conducting two tracks in the historic Sacred Harp / Shape Note singing style for the Oscar nominated Cold Mountain film soundtrack, as well as coaching Nicole Kidman, Jude Law and fifty Romanian extras in the singing style for the film. He was also the featured vocalist on three traditional American songs for the film, including being the offscreen singing voice for actor Brendan Gleeson’s character. Tim has produced two solo albums and several more with his internationally acclaimed ‘folk noise’ group Cordelia’s Dad, as well as collaborating with many great musicians, including Alison Krauss and Martin Carthy. He is also a professor of music and lectures in many kinds of singing and music. |
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 IRA BERNSTEIN Ira Bernstein is the world’s leading authority on, and exponent of, traditional Appalachian flatfooting and clogging, which he began studying as a college student, alongside the fiddle, back in 1978. He lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina but has performed in concerts and at festivals all over the US and throughout Europe and Asia. He has shared the stage with many of the world’s greatest tap and step dancers, including Gregory Hines, Savion Glover and Honi Coles and has appeared many times on television as well as in many theatrical productions. Ira has repeatedly won first place in the Mount Airy Fiddlers Convention Old-Time Flatfooting Competition deep in the Appalachian Mountains. He was the lead soloist in Rhythm of the Celts, a show which ran for six weeks at the Waterfront Theatre in Belfast to mark its opening. |
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 JIM RAINEY A native of Belfast, Jim Rainey is an accomplished guitar player of some renown and a veteran of numerous European and American tours with various traditional Irish music outfits. Jim is a familiar face at many sessions on the vibrant Belfast music scene and beyond. He currently divides his time between touring with Belfast based trad band “Craobh Rua” and writing and performing with his band “Cava”. Jim also teaches traditional guitar for the Belfast Traditional Music Society. |
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