We have over 10 different folk bands and classical duo/quartets with seasoned mature musicians that perform over 200 paid gigs a year. The shows range from weddings and wakes, to performances at local restaurants and Irish pubs, playing festivals, and performances with major touring acts like Celtic Thunder and Celtic Woman. Here are a selection of the shows we have performed in the last few years:
Celtic Thunder
Irish Tenors
Celtic Woman
Moya Brennan of Clannad - at Leo's, Gweedore, Ireland
Kimbelfest – Scottland (estimated audience was 4,000)
North Texas Irish Festival
Houston Highland Games
Donegal Castle, Donegle Town, Ireland.
The Celt Pub (over 40 performances for Sunday brunch, and Thursday evenings)
Trinity Hall
Weddings (procession/recession) and Cocktail hours
Children's Hospital of Dallas
North Richland Hills Library - Music Series
Literary events: Yeats 150th Birthday and Bloomsday celebrating William Butler Yeats and James Joyce
The Traditions Retirement Center - multiple events
Emmit Cahil in Dallas, and Houston
Texas Scottish Festival
Murphy Maze Days
Rowette International Festival
O'Flaherty Irish Music Retreat
We have 10 main performing groups:
The Tradition - an amazing celtic/bluegrass fusion group that sings the roots music of Americana along with music that inspired it from Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
Sarah Copus is a stunning Celtic vocalist and harpist. She has been performing and recording for over 7 years. For a musician under 21, she has had some extraordinary success: three albums hit the Billboard top 20 that feature her as lead singer, radio airplay across hundreds of stations worldwide, and a Best Vocal Album award from Zone Music Reporter Awards Show in 2015.
Nathan Kennedy - Nathan is a national award winning Irish fiddler who performs as a duo with local guitar legend Russ Alves. They play an acoustic mix of folk tunes with a few original songs from Russ's lengthly song book.
Plectra is a traditional Celtic folk music band from the D/FW area featuring two brothers: Sam and Arthur Hatch, Sam's wife Ashlie, and Ian Wilkenson. Sam plays guitar and mandolin, Arthur plays button accordion, whistle, and flute, Ian plays tenor banjo, and Ashlie joins the band for some Irish songs. The band plays an instrumental mixture of upbeat Celtic tunes and the occasional ballad. Trading off multiple instruments as they go, they bring a wide variety of sounds and harmonies to their performances.
Cierra Brannies is a 19 year old singer/songwriter from the Dallas area who performs folk songs, Celtic ballads, and even traditional songs in the Irish language of Gaelic. From John Denver classics to pub drinking songs, she covers the map. Cierra has has an ongoing passion for folk music and performing live. She has performed with the North Texas School of Irish Music for four years in their music and choral ensembles, and in the last year began performing solo. She sings and has been playing piano for 11 years, guitar for 3 years, and violin for 2 years.
Harber Row feature brother and sister twins Declan and Ireland Harber - some of the most gifted young folk musicans to come out of Texas. Emmet Cahill of Celtic Thunder described their rendition of Last Rose of Summer as one of the best he has heard from any artist including many who had performed for decades. Their performances feature some of the common celtic reperatoir as well as americana and even beautiful folk renditions of songs from classic metal and punk bands. Their vocal are emotive, pure and tug at everyones heartstrings. They also have a very active performance schedule - having performed over 100 shows in the last 2 years.
Harps Accord is comprised of Aeryn Richardson and Caroline Davis - two of our most experienced harpists. Their music is largely instrumental being played on harp, and Irish flute. It is mostly Celtic music - Irish, Scottish, Welsh and others plus some folk songs and popular songs from the radio and broadway. The music is upbeat, beautiful, and wonderful for audiences of all ages.
Green Light Band - a family band comprised of a fiddle player, piano, Irish penny whistles, flute, and Irish pipes. They play an amazing selection of traditional Irish tunes.
North Texas Gaelic Youth Chorus - This is a collection of singers that perform traditional Irish songs in the Irish language from the North Texas School of Irish Music. There are only a few of these Irish chorus groups in the world and this is the only youth chorus.
North Texas Irish Youth Band - This is a collection of instrumentalists from the North Texas School of Irish Music that comprise the most advanced and oldest musicians in their program. They play instruments including fiddle, guitar, banjo, mandolin, irish flute, penny whistle, and bodhran (Drums). The music they play is traditional Irish music. Most of it is dance music and they can and accompany Irish dancers.