Traditional Irish Music Concert
Frankie Gavin (of De Danann fame)
with Michelle Lally
Date: Tuesday July 24th 2013
Venue: The Theatre Newbridge College
Frankie Gavin is widely considered to be the world's greatest Irish fiddle player. In 2010 he also entered the Guinness World Records as the fastest fiddle player in the world.
Frankie and his band, Hibernian Rhapsody , have performed everywhere from The White House & U.S. Capitol Building to Beijing Opera House, and in addition has performed and recorded with a long list of musical luminaries which includes The Rolling Stones. The band has also performed for a whole host of dignitaries which includes three U.S. Presidents.
'Electrifying' is an adjective that's too often used to describe certain performance, but this is one instance where it's absolutely unavoidable. If you've never been lucky enough to see Frankie Gavin perform live, prepare to be... shocked.
Frankie Gavin . ' the jewel in the crown', 'the fast reels in particular are mesmerizing'.
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Carl Dixon, The Irish Examiner, August 2009
Rightly heralded as the greatest Irish fiddler player, Frankie Gavin has nothing left to prove...Gavin is a true fiddle-playing genius, one who continues to inspire and dumbfound in equal measure. - The Scotsman
Frankie Gavin has collaborated with a diverse range of artists, from The Rolling Stones and Keith Richards to the late Stephane Grappelli and Yehudi Menuhin . He arranged and recorded the original soundtrack for the TV series The Irish RM .
In July 2001 he released the album, Fierce Traditional , which appears to mark a return to more traditional values. He told The Irish Times : "I feel that traditional music today is taking on a new slant altogether . . . which doesn't have the slightest appeal to me whatsoever. And I felt that this (CD) was a statement about holding on to the real roots of the music. I feel that a lot of newer recordings are full of people playing 'trendy' music, with anything from drum kits to new compositions and groovy tunes which don't sound the slightest bit Irish to me. "
His violin is a German-made copy of a Guarnaerius. He has recorded seven solo albums and 16 albums with De Danann. His traditional compositions include The Drimneen Reel and The Wren's Nest. In October he was awarded an honorary Masters Degree by his local university, NUI Galway.
.created a new way of playing Irish dance tunes in a group format, which Gavin describes in The Companion to Traditional Irish Music as "tightly percussive melody lines set against a flowing, contrapuntal background." And the band's cheeky versions of classical pieces such as Handel's "The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba" and pop songs like "Hey Jude" and "Bohemian Rhapsody" helped remind the world that traditional music doesn't exist in a cultural vacuum.
"Innovation may be the buzz-word in Traditional music, but Frankie Gavin's digressions are not in the common areas of tempo and superficial style-impressions. His contemporary borrowings of art-deco and music-hall Irishness are re-jigged in original avenues of exploration. His dextrous treatment of troublesome tunes might get even the Pope out on the floor, his orchestration could break hearts. A superbly uncompromising player, he makes refreshment of the old by picking out and polishing every detail and setting it off in a steady, listenable pace. Gavin edgy and brilliant on both fiddle and flute, with always the most meticulous attention given to tone and variation. Live, his tune sets are perfectionism that drive and are driven by an audience spontaneity that spurs Gavin to push fiddle from shriek to rasping bass. Tears and cheers erupt spontaneously, the goodwill of his mixed-age audiences has always been great sauce. Like herding the mythic creac, Frankie Gavin here whoops a great retrospective before him into the Ogham of Celtic Valhalla." - Fintan Vallely, Sunday Tribune
Michelle Lally Singer
Michelle Lally is a powerful new singer who has just emerged from Galway in the west of Ireland. Her renditions of contemporary easy listing Irish music are impossible to resist with the gentle charm of her immediately identifiable pure tone.
Michelle's undoubted talent has been brought to the fore by the legendary Frankie Gavin of traditional super group De Dannan. She is currently the lead vocalist with Frankie's new group 'Hibernian Rhapsody' who recently performed with The Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in Liverpool and Dubai Philhamonic Orchestra. The Hibernian Rhapsody band has received rave reviews since its inception and has played to over 80,000 people in the past year alone. The band had the honour of being the opening support act to The Rolling Stones in Slane Castle, Ireland. Michelle's debut album "If This be Love" was released in 2007.
