Artist Category: Celtic

Symbio

The Swedish phenomenon ”Symbio” is regarded as one of the most prominent bands from the progressive Folk & World music scene today. Hearing this symphonic duo will make you doubt the fact that they are only two musicians on stage. This is music that you have never heard before — prepare for a mesmerizing and immersive live experience.

After 10 years on the road together, Symbio has toured extensively in more than 20 countries across Europe and North America. With an electrifying stage presence and heartfelt musical storytelling, they are known for captivating audiences wherever they go. Their latest album Endeavour is a cinematic journey where soulful melodies, dreamy soundscapes and hypnotic beats depict life-affirming themes. The album was awarded ”Best Album of the Year” at the Swedish Folk & World Music Awards 2023.

Symbio is:
Johannes Geworkian Hellman: hurdy-gurdy, electronics
LarsEmil Öjeberget: accordion, beats, electronics

Jenna Moynihan & Màiri Chaimbeul

Jenna, from Lakewood, NY, and Màiri, from the Isle of Skye, combine to make contemporary music rooted in the melodies of Scotland and Appalachia. The pair met in 2012 whilst studying at Berklee College of Music and are a product of the thriving and rich Boston music community, and have since toured in US, Scotland, and France. Jenna and Màiri have both been heavily steeped in tradition, but their music breathes new life into old tunes and merges their wide-ranging influences into a sound that is at once grounded and adventurous. To hear Jenna & Màiri is to bear witness to conversation, connection, and expression between two of the most exciting voices in traditional music today. Their debut album, One Two was released in April 2017, and has been a widely-celebrated first release for the duo.

Jenna Moynihan is widely regarded as one of the best of the best in the new generation of acoustic musicians. Versatile and inventive, her fiddling style draws strongly from the Scottish tradition, but is not bound by it. Folk Radio UK said of her playing, “…from the first time you hear Moynihan, it is clear that her playing is resonating straight from the depths of her soul.” Jenna graduated Berklee College of Music with honors and was a recipient of both the Fletcher Bright Award & The American Roots Award – given annually to an outstanding student in the String Department. She’s performed around the world in The U.K., Sweden, Norway, France, Denmark, Italy, Belgium, Finland & Canada. And has performed and collaborated with Darol Anger & The Furies, The Milk Carton Kids, Hamish Napier, Old Blind Dogs, Laura Cortese & The Dance Cards, Apiary, Phil Cunningham, A Celtic Sojourn, and as a soloist at Symphony Hall with the Boston Pops. In 2015 Jenna released her debut solo album, Woven.

Màiri Chaimbeul is a Boston-based harp player and composer. Described by Folk Radio UK as “astonishing”, she is known for her versatile sound, which combines a deep-rooted sense of Gaelic tradition with a distinctive improvising voice and honed classical technique. Mairi has toured throughout the UK, Europe and North America; was twice-nominated for the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award and finalist in the BBC Young Traditional & Jazz Musician of the Year; and graduated from Berklee College of Music with highest honours and the prestigious American Roots Award. Màiri can currently be heard regularly with new prog-trad group Aerialists, the Jacob Matheus Group, and also appears with legendary violinist Darol Anger & The Furies. Recent highlights include performances & teaching at the III Encuentro Internacional Maestros del Arpa in Bogota, Colombia, and a feature in Series 2 of Julie Fowlis and Muireann NicAmhlaoibh’s BBC Alba/TG4 television show, Port.

Clare Fraser Trio

Clare Fraser, Simon Lace, and Elias Cardoso are Boston-based traditional Irish musicians. Each regularly lead Irish sessions at local venues, including The Burren, The Druid, Emmets, and more. As a trio of longtime friends, their years of playing together lends to a cohesive sound that is lively and fun.

Clare Fraser is a traditional Irish fiddler, originally from upstate NY. She was surrounded by folk and Celtic music from a young age, playing at local sessions and for contra dances. Since moving to Boston in 2020, she has focused on traditional Irish music, leading Irish sessions at several venues in the Boston area, performing at local festivals, and touring the US as a featured fiddler with A Taste of Ireland Dance Company.

Adam Hendey Band

The Adam Hendey Band brings audiences along on a breathtaking tour of traditional songs from Scotland, Ireland, and beyond. Hendey’s easy, intimate singing pulls listeners to the edges of seats as guitars weave together in clockwork counterpoints to support fiery fiddle tunes. A graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s prestigious Traditional Music program, Adam Hendey is joined by Elias Cardoso and Erin Hogan.

Katie McNally & Neil Pearlman

The vibrant musical traditions of Scotland and Cape Breton take on new life in the hands of fiddler Katie McNally (“Formidable”, The Boston Globe) and Neil Pearlman (“a tremendous pianist”, BBC Radio Scotland).

McNally and Pearlman have performed as a duo for over a decade, making their mark at legendary stages like Newport Folk Festival, playing to buoyant festival plazas in Spain and England, all while maintaining ties to home by leading monthly community sessions at the storied Canadian-American Club in Boston. They’ve often teamed up in larger outfits like New England powerhouse Pine Tree Flyers and Gàidhlig-language unit Fàrsan and their intimate duo show reflects a deep musical trust and intuition built on years of these varied collaborations.

Both were 2025 Shannon Artists-in-Residence at Beinn Mhàbu in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia and are co-Artistic Directors of Groton Hill’s St. Patrick’s Day Celebration. The pair plan to begin work on their first duo record in summer 2025.

Forsyth

Forsyth (Kate Knudsvig, Kat Wallace, Erin Hogan and Helen Kuhar) is a democratic collective of musicians, where each member’s voice adds an equal thread to the group’s tapestry. With four voices as their canvas, they combine their individual talents into a shared interpretation, bringing fresh energy to the timeless melodies of the Celtic tradition. Inspired by the haunting soundscapes of Lankum and Ye Vagabonds, Forsyth invites listeners to explore the vibrant tapestry of every song and story.

Inn Echo

Three musicians from different metaphorical worlds, converged in Prince Edward Island of all places. It was perfect timing, as they started to create a sound and a journey in music none of them expected. They’d come for the tunes and stayed for the longest session yet. Inn Echo was formed in 2019.

What genre of music is this? The colloquial term “trad” or traditional can refer to a sound descended from Ireland, Scotland, and parts of Europe, fused with the enthusiasm of today’s generation of players. Inn Echo pays homage to these roots and adds tunes of their own to the repertoire. So on first listen you can hear the history but you will immediately delight in a contemporary current.

For Inn Echo, a lilting fiddle is the voice, with its own accent and expression. Though you won’t hear words being sung, there is a story to every tune, a narrative woven into each melody, and a heart beating beneath it all. All the while a strong and nimble percussive acoustic guitar attack is a foundation on which the fiddles climb. You will hear blues, pop, dub in the music, artfully woven by the fiddles who are master chameleons after all. There’s no denying the Celtic roots within, but this is definitely something new. It starts with a story, and ends with an impulse to stomp, clap, and move along.

Tuli (BC) Karson (ON) and Tom (USA) were music students far from home and perhaps it was the building of new spaces which sparked a gravitational pull to bind it all together. From fiddle to cello, guitar to fiddle the three started closely weaving what is now their distinct symphony of living tradition. Releasing HEMISPHERES September 2023 was the next frontier for the band with producers Jake Charron and Donny Richard at the helm.

Inn Echo composes the majority of the repertoire amongst the three of them, but the sets are anointed with some very special composers subtly embedded for maximum drive. And drive they have, not to mention flown, boated and trained around several continents in the last two years. From the iconic Woodford Folk Festival in Australia to the Hebridean Celtic Festival in Scotland, The Calgary and Canmore Folk Festivals or the hometown PEI Festival of Small Halls, Inn Echo have a reputation as tradition keepers and tune makers that will take you to dawn. This is the new traditional sound of Canada. These are the new players. Watch the sun come up with Inn Echo. You’ll dance like the world depends on it.

Dervish

Described by the BBC as “an icon of Irish music,” Dervish are long-established as one of the biggest names in Irish music internationally. They’re renowned for live performances, which match dazzling sets of tunes with stunning interpretations of traditional songs. Their studio and live albums make up one of the outstanding catalogues in Irish music.

They are regular visitors to the US, performing sell out shows from coast to coast. However, their fan base stretches across several continents, including Europe, Asia, and South America. They were the first Irish band to play the world’s biggest music festival, Rock in Rio, performing to an estimated 250,000 people. Over the years they’ve been on the same bill as artists such as James Brown, Neil Young, Sting and even Iron Maiden!

Liz Simmons & Casey Murray

Born in San Francisco to musician parents, Liz Simmons (most well-known for her work with the band Low Lily) spent her early childhood traveling through the wilds of North America in a sky blue VW bus. Her parents were itinerant musicians, moving from California to Oregon to Alaska, and finally settling in New England. Inspired by her beginnings and after a brief foray into classical music, Liz found her way back to folk and roots music, founding the bands Annalivia and Low Lily with husband Flynn Cohen, as well as performing as a backing vocalist for Livingston Taylor, Tom Chapin, Melanie, and others. Embracing traditions of the past and discovering innovations for the future, Berklee graduate Casey Murray (of Corner House) forges a creative musical path as a rhythm and tune player on the cello.

San Miguel Fraser

San Miguel Fraser is a project bringing together Galen Fraser, a Berklee graduate and son of renowned Scottish fiddler Alasdair Fraser and Maria San Miguel, a native of Castile and graduate of Oviedo Conservatory with deep family roots in the traditions of her homeland. Together, they combine dynamic fiddling and string arrangements with the soaring, life-celebrating singing of Maria and the exciting, oh-so-sensitive cittern accompaniment of Galen. Surprises abound in this project, with fresh compositions and startlingly touching and deeply thoughtful arrangements.

Their new album “Dots of Light” sparkles with life and creativity, as they explore traditional music from their combined homelands as well as new compositions in their own unique chamber music style.

Notable performances include Celtic Connections, Festival de Ortiguiera, Bellingham Celtic Festival, Bolao Folk, KVMR Celtic Festival, Miguel DeLibes, Aitzina Folk, Valladolid Plaza Mayor, Tradicionàrius.