Artist Category: Celtic | Page 4

Ben Roberts

Ben Roberts is a cellist and composer based in Boston and originally from Denver, Colorado. Having studied classical performance at the Cleveland Institute of Music and contemporary improvisation at the New England Conservatory, Ben is now a freelance musician performing and teaching primarily in classical and Irish styles.

After graduating undergrad in 2020, Ben programmed, organized, and performed over 100 outdoor house concerts in Denver and Boston. He has performed as part of the Askia and Corylus string quartets, and has worked with artists such as John Patitucci, Esperanza Spalding, and members of the Emerson String Quartet.

Gadan

Gadan is the new project created by four experienced and well-known musicians in Irish trad and European folk/rock scene, with years of touring in the major European and US festivals of traditional and contaminated folk music.

An impactful repertoire with a powerful live appeal and a sound comparable to new-trad acts such as Talisk, WeBanjo3, The East Pointers or Rura, but with a unique identity thanks to years of experience in several folk scenes, from Appalachian & Old Time to Scottish and English folk and traditional music.

Two banjos – tenor & clawhammer – fiddle, mandolin, bouzouki and guitar for a “strings-only” sound with a hint of electronics and driven by a powerful rhythmic pulse. A loop of building energy, taking audience to ecstasy with the wide spectrum of refreshing yet traditional tones. The Gadan power leaves no one unmoved. Who said you need drums to groove?

Glenville

With backgrounds in Irish, Scottish, and even classical music genres (to name a few!) Glenville brings together fresh arrangements of traditional tunes as well as new pieces written by the band.

The Hanneke Cassel Band

Effervescent and engaging, Boston-based fiddler Hanneke Cassel’s fiddle music fuses influences from the Isle of Skye and Cape Breton with Americana grooves and musical innovations. She has performed and traveled across North America, Europe, Australia and Asia. Hanneke’s music is a blend of the contemporary and traditional, described by the Boston Globe as “exuberant and rhythmic, somehow wild and innocent, delivered with captivating melodic clarity and an irresistible playfulness.”

The Hanneke Cassel Band features Jenna Moynihan on 5-string fiddle/vocals and Keith Murphy on guitar/vocals. Jenna Moynihan is regarded as one of the best in the new generation of fiddle players. Versatile and inventive, her fiddling style draws strongly from the Scottish tradition, but is in no way bound by it. A graduate of Berklee College of Music, Jenna performs as part of a duo with cutting edge harpist Mairi Chaimbeul and is the regular fiddler for the Seamus Egan Project. Newfoundland-born guitarist Keith Murphy began absorbing his native musical languages – folksongs, ballads and dance music – from an early age. A proficient multi-instrumentalist, he has long applied considerable energy to the rhythmic side of music, becoming a valued band member and highly sought-after sideman on guitar, mandolin and foot percussion.

Together, the Hanneke Cassel Band creates a cutting-edge acoustic sound that retains the integrity and spirit of the Scottish tradition.

Sunniva Brynnel

Sunniva Brynnel is a Swedish accordionist, vocalist and composer within improvised music, folk music, devotional music and more.

Sunniva comes from a lineage of seven generations of female musicians, and her mother – Swedish folk singer Moa Rosa Brynnel – is one of her major influences.

Sunniva has toured extensively in Sweden and the US, and have recorded and/or performed in Norway, Denmark, Ireland, England, Slovakia, Estonia, France, Hawai’i. As a freelancing musician for over ten years, she has shared the stage with amongst others Timo Alakotila, Neil Yates, Jai Uttal, Praful, Peruquois, Dave Douglas, Dónal Clancy and many others.

Sunniva has performed on Swedish National TV, SVT 1, and her original music recordings have been broadcast on National Swedish Radio P2, as well as on international radio stations in the US, England, Ireland and more.

She is the recipient of Albin Hagström Minnesfond’s scholarship for accordionists through the Royal Academy in Stockholm, Anders Holger Gustafssons Musikfond, as well as having received substantial support throughout her music studies from Gull & Stellan Ljungbergs Stiftelse.

Sunniva was born in Uddevalla on the Swedish west coast and started to play the piano at the age of five. From the age of ten, she went to a primary school which had a special focus on music – especially choir singing.

Aged 18, Sunniva studied world and pop music full time at Ljungskile folk high school, Sweden.

She then went on to study Irish/Gaelic singing and music at DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama in Dublin. Her vocal teacher at DIT was Seosaimhin Ni Bheaglaoich.

After a year spent in Dublin, she moved on to study jazz performance at Birka folk high school outside Östersund, Sweden. This year; living in the Swedish snowy midlands by beautiful lake Storsjön, and having both inspiring teachers as well as brilliant fellow students, made a big impact on Sunniva’s playing and composing.

At Birka folk high school, Sunniva met guitarist Calle Jönsson, who insisted that every folk pianist should also play the accordion. And sure enough – she got herself an accordion and never looked back.

To be able to immerse herself in both jazz and the music of the British Isles, Sunniva then went on to study a BA jazz at Leeds College of Music, England, with composition as her major subject. Within her degree at LCoM she composed everything from small sized ensemble works to big band pieces.

While in the UK, Sunniva was also fortunate to study with accordionists such as Karen Tweed, Piero Tucci, Ian Lowthian and Murray Grainger.

Sunniva graduated from Leeds College of Music in July 2012 (BA Jazz 1st class honours). She also has a Swedish music teaching degree from Gothenburg University (2016).

In May 2018, Sunniva graduated with a Masters of Music in Contemporary Improvisation (Academic Honours) from The New England Conservatory.

Her teachers at The New England Conservatory include: Ran Blake, Jason Moran, Warren Senders and Jerry Bergonzi. She is a student of Indian Classical music, studying with amongst others her dear mentor Warren Senders.

In the spring of 2020, Sunniva became a Certified Deep Listening Instructor (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, NY, USA), and she is currently enjoying facilitating groups in Deep Listening. Deep Listening is the lifework of American accordionist and composer Pauline Oliveros.

Sunniva has hosted accordion-themed radio shows for Swedish National Radio P2 and she is the news editor of Swedish roots and jazz magazine Lira.

Her musical projects include:

Sunniva Brynnel Group – jazz quartet, US

Blå Dager – folk music quartet from the Swedish West Coast

Sunniva Brynnel & Timo Alakotila Duo – this Swedish/Finnish folk music & originals duo released their self-titled debut album in July 2016. The album is available on all major digital platforms

Night Tree – American/Swedish contemporary folk sextet which toured the US extensively and released two acclaimed albums: Night Tree (2017) & Dedications (2018)

Sunniva Brynnel & Yaniv Yacoby – Swedish and Celtic folk music on accordion/voice and Irish bouzouki

Masterplants – improvised music to the music of plants

Sunniva Brynnel & Ludvig Seashore – Swedish duo combining acoustic songs with deeply transporting electronics. Find their debut album Gläntan-Vinden on all major digital platforms.

Mareld –Swedish folk group from the Swedish West Coast playing traditional music and originals

Sunniva also writes music for theatre and dance, as well as being a passionate musician for Contact Improvisation and different tantric events and yoga practices.

Sunniva’s original music and recordings has been broadcast on for example Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Irish and American radio stations.

The Carroll Sisters

The Carroll Sisters Trio is a dynamic Celtic band most known for its lively traditional and contemporary Celtic tunes and unique musical arrangements on fiddle, cello, and piano. They have performed in intimate settings such as pubs, farm festivals, and house concerts, as well as at larger events like Sober St. Patrick’s Day in New York City (2018), the Boston Celtic Music Festival (2022-2024), and the 2024 Longs Peak Scottish Irish Highland Festival in Estes Park, CO. Their 2022 debut album (Daybreak, produced by John Whelan) has been critically acclaimed and featured in Irish Music Magazine, Celtic Life International Magazine, The Irish Echo, Boston Irish Magazine, and Irish and Celtic Music Podcast. They were on that podcast’s Top 10 Celtic Bands of 2022 and the Top 5 Bands to Watch in 2023 lists. Their second album will be out in summer 2025.

Alasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas

The musical partnership between consummate performer Alasdair Fraser, “the Michael Jordan of Scottish fiddling”, and brilliant Californian cellist Natalie Haas spans the full spectrum between intimate chamber music and ecstatic dance energy. Over the last 20 years of creating a buzz at festivals and concert halls across the world, they have truly set the standard for fiddle and cello in traditional music. They continue to thrill audiences internationally with their virtuosic playing, their near-telepathic understanding and the joyful spontaneity and sheer physical presence of their music.

Fraser has a concert and recording career spanning over 30 years, with a long list of awards, accolades, radio and television credits, and feature performances on top movie soundtracks (Last of the Mohicans, Titanic, etc.). In 2011, he was inducted into the Scottish Traditional Music Hall of Fame. Haas, a graduate of the Juilliard School of Music, is one of the most sought after cellists in traditional music today. She has performed and recorded with a who’s who of the fiddle world including Mark O’Connor, Natalie MacMaster, Irish supergroups Solas and Altan, Liz Carroll, Dirk Powell, Brittany Haas, Darol Anger, Jeremy Kittel, Hanneke Cassel, Laura Cortese, and many more.

This seemingly unlikely pairing of fiddle and cello is the fulfillment of a long-standing musical dream for Fraser. His search eventually led him to find a cellist who could help return the cello to its historical role at the rhythmic heart of Scottish dance music, where it stood for hundreds of years before being relegated to the orchestra. The duo’s debut recording, Fire & Grace, won the coveted the Scots Trad Music “Album of the Year” award, the Scottish equivalent of a Grammy. Since its release, the two have gone on to record five more critically acclaimed albums that blend a profound understanding of the Scottish tradition with cutting-edge string explorations. In additional to performing, they both have motivated generations of string players through their teaching at fiddle camps across the globe.

Cantrip

The name Cantrip is an Old Scots word meaning a charm, magic spell or piece of mischief and it aptly describes the unexpected twists and turns in their musical arrangements, likewise the compelling potency of their musicianship. Swirling border pipes, raging fiddle, thunderous guitar and three rich voices blend to create a sound energetic enough to tear the roof off. After 20 years of touring, Cantrip has found a character like no other. Echoes can be heard of trad music from the 1960s and 70s, but the years have slowly infested their music with the sounds of funk, metal, bluegrass, swing, and even klezmer. Dan Houghton, Jon Bews and Eric McDonald stir the elements in a witches’ cauldron, slowly coalescing into chaotic order.

The three are the closest of friends, and it is this friendship that has cemented the band’s musicality through the years and across ponds. Dan began his career with the whistle at age seven and started playing bagpipes in the early nineties, proceeding to win the Scottish Lowland and Border Pipers’ Society Open Borderpipes and New Composition events (multiple times), as well as the Maitre de Cornemuse at St. Chartier. He is also an accomplished player on flute, bouzouki and DADGAD guitar. Jon is a veteran fiddler, having started at age four. A prizewinning graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 1994, he has performed and recorded with a diverse roster of artists. Eric studied mandolin and guitar at Berklee College of Music. He cut his teeth playing for contra dances in New England, where he can still often be seen from the dance floor, in addition to his work with Cantrip.

Hanneke Cassel & Keith Murphy

Effervescent and engaging, Boston-based fiddler Hanneke Cassel is a performer, teacher and composer whose career spans over two decades. Her style fuses influences from the Isle of Skye and Cape Breton Island with Americana grooves and musical innovations, creating a cutting-edge acoustic sound that retains the integrity and spirit of the Scottish tradition. Hanneke’s music is a blend of the contemporary and traditional, described by the Boston Globe as “exuberant and rhythmic, somehow wild and innocent, delivered with captivating melodic clarity and an irresistible playfulness.”

Newfoundland-born guitarist Keith Murphy began absorbing his native musical languages – folksongs, ballads and dance music – from an early age. A proficient multi-instrumentalist, he has long applied considerable energy to the rhythmic side of music, becoming a valued band member and highly sought-after sideman on guitar, mandolin and foot percussion.

Copley Street

Boston based Uilleann piper Joey Abarta and fiddler Nathan Gourley are two of America’s great young trad musicians, who have been playing music together daily since 2013. Their debut duo album, Copley Street, featuring Owen Marshall on Greek bouzouki, has an undeniable chemistry and demonstrates a nuanced understanding of each other’s playing. Their music includes offbeat settings of well-known tunes and beautiful pieces that seem to languish in obscurity. “Copley Street” is a wonderful album from two stunning young players that adds to Boston’s rich history of traditional Irish music.