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Grammy Award-winning Riverdance composer Bill Whelan returns to the Irish Arts Center for AN EVENING WITH Bill Whelan along with world-renowned fiddler Athena Tergis, an orchestra and special guests including singer Morgan Crowley and Irish Dancer Mick Donegan, for four performances only, Saturday, October 29 through Tuesday, November 1, nightly at 7:30 PM. The Irish Arts Center is located at 553 West 51 Street. Tickets are on sale now via www.irishartscenter.org or 866-811-4111. The concerts are presented as part of Imagine Ireland, Culture Ireland's year of Irish arts in America.
With the maestro at the piano, the concert evening will feature Whelan performing selections from his vast body of work, including the U.S. premiere of two new compositions - Jazzical Cyclebike (infusion of jazz and traditional Irish fiddle) performed by Ms. Tergis and After The Titanic (new setting of Derek Mahon's poem "After The Titanic") sung by Morgan Crowley. Also included will be excerpts from Carna, Timedance and, of course, Riverdance, as well as improvising with his guests giving audiences a rare glimpse into the composer's world. "Largely because of the success of Riverdance, Irish music is impacting the pop music market as never before." - Don Heckman, Los Angeles Times.
Audiences were enthralled by the musical partnership of Whelan and Tergis when it first took flight last year at the Irish Arts Center's Masters In Collaboration series. "In a rare public performance...Bill Whelan played, sang and conducted, sometimes simultaneously...the audience was brought to its feet by music that suggested joy, celebration, sorrow and transcendence." - Cahir O'Doherty, Irish Voice. Now, these celebrated masters of Irish music return alongside an extraordinary ensemble to the Center's Donaghy Theatre to electrify audiences once again.
For more than three decades, composer, producer, arranger Bill Whelan has broken ground across musical boundaries in a career that has played a major role in ensuring the relevance and dynamism of Irish music in the 21st Century. He was composer to the W. B. Yeats International Theatre Festival at Dublin's Abbey Theatre in 1989. His adaptation of HMS Pinafore received a Laurence Olivier Award nomination. His compositional work in film includes Dancing at Lughnasa (starring Meryl Streep), Some Mother's Son and Lamb. The Seville Suite was commissioned for Expo '92 in Seville and The Spirit of Mayo followed in 1993. The Connemara Suite, a trilogy of pieces written for chamber orchestra, premiered at Carnegie Hall in March 2005. Bill's production and arranging credits include U2, Van Morrison, Kate Bush, Richard Harris, Planxty and The Dubliners. He was honored with the 1997 Grammy Award for "Best Musical Show Album" for his Riverdance record. He has taught at Princeton University and is on the boards of Berklee School of Music in Boston, the University of Limerick and the recently established music education body Music Generation. Bill is currently working on a new theatre work which has been commissioned by the New York Metropolitan Opera and Lincoln Center and also on a musical for Rough Magic, the Irish Theatre Company.
Whelan will be joined on stage by Suzuki-trained violinist and composer Athena Tergis who has performed in traditional, classical and pop settings all over the world - from Riverdance-On Broadway to the Dublin Philharmonic Orchestra in Beijing to national tours with the late E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemmons and The Green Fields of America. She appeared in Absolutely Irish, the concert documentary filmed live at the Irish Arts Center, and is a featured performer in the Center's annual solstice celebration An Irish Christmas.
