Having played to packed houses in Kilkenny in the past Carmina, the renowned Celtic jazz pioneers are returning to the stunning and most appropriate venue of Castalia Hall in Ballytobin Co Kilkenny as part of their 2009 Irish tour this July.
The tour which finishes with their headline appearance at the famous Ballyshannon Festival, Ireland’s longest-running and most prestigious folk festival, involves some of the very best venues for acoustic music of this kind in Ireland. Castalia Hall in Ballytobin, Co Kilkenny is reputed to have the finest acoustics of any hall in Ireland!
Carmina have recently released their new studio album My Crescent City to great critical acclaim and this is Carmina’s second collaboration with Irish music legend Dónal Lunny, who produced the album and features as guest musician. On the strength of this album Carmina have now been signed to Peter Gabriel’s prestigious Real World music publishing company.
The album features mostly original numbers, including the award-winning song ‘Blessed are the Broken’ (Tipperary International Song of Peace 2007 ) and spine-tingling, innovative versions of traditional material.
The band Carmina boasts some big names in British and Irish jazz as well as younger stars of Irish traditional music. Singer and songwriter Pippa Marland has “a wondrous voice, capable of enchanting and emoting” (Time Out ) and plays alto and soprano saxes and whistles. She along with highly-accomplished arranger and songwriter Rob King (acoustic guitar, bodhrán ) are the founders of Carmina and compose the songs. Their world-class line-up for Camphill includes the legendary London jazz pianist Geoff Castle (who will be doing justice to Castalia’s full-size Steinway piano! ); the wonderful Cork traditional musician Diarmaid Moynihan (uilleann pipes/whistles ); and the virtuoso UK saxophonist Julian Nicholas, who is now becoming recognised as a leading jazz composer and performer in his own right.
Carmina are pleased to be returning to Kilkenny, and to be playing Camphill, especially as the organisation’s director John Clark has generously offered them the opportunity to record material for their next album in the Castalia Hall, with top Dublin sound recordist Ciarán Byrne.
“Last year, Carmina took the Guinness Festival Club by storm with a superb mix of jazz and Celtic crossover music - taking the audience on a bewitching journey full of melodic grace and inventiveness - a brilliant band superbly fronted by vocalist Pippa Marland and guitarist Rob King,” according to Jack McGouran, artistic director, Guinness Jazz Festival.
This gig is one not to be missed and Carmina appear at Camphill, Ballytobin Co Kilkenny on Friday July 31.
Check out the website at http://www.callanprojects.camphill.ie/artscentre/culturalhall.htm
For ticket reservations contact John Clark 087 050 5669 or e-mail: pianolas@gmail.com. Website: www.carmina.co.uk
