Irish Arts Center News

Irish Arts Center and Baryshnikov Arts Center join forces again to present the U.S. premiere of Colin Dunne's Concert, in which he takes on the widely influential Irish fiddle player Tommie Potts' iconic—and notoriously choreographically challenging—1972 album The Liffey Banks, armed with an LP, tape recorder, portable speakers, and sheets of flooring. Choreographed and performed by Dunne, and created in collaboration with director Sinéad Rushe and composer and sound designer Mel Mercier, Concert, which The Irish Times, in a five-star review, described as “warm, funny, respectful, and irreverent,” comes to Baryshnikov Arts Center November 14-16.

Alarm Will Sound, a?oeone of the most vital and original ensembles on the American music scenea?? (The New York Times), tours the concert version of Donnacha Dennehy's modern cantata The Hunger to Princeton Sound Kitchen on September 17, 2019 and to Merkin Hall in collaboration with Irish Arts Center on September 19, 2019, part of Ecstatic Music's 10th anniversary season. Rooted in the emotional, political, and socioeconomic devastation of Ireland's Great Famine (1845-52), The Hunger features Alarm Will Sound with soprano Katherine Manley and sean nós singer Iarla ?" Lionáird. The Irish folk music narrative is interwoven with personal, historical accounts, where the libretto principally draws from first-hand accounts by Asenath Nicholson, an American humanitarian so moved by the waves of immigrants arriving in New York that she travelled to Ireland to report from the cabins of starving families. 

 Alarm Will Sound tours the concert version of Donnacha Dennehy's modern cantata The Hunger to Princeton Sound Kitchen on September 17, 2019 and to Merkin Hall in collaboration with Irish Arts Center on September 19, 2019, part of Ecstatic Music's 10th anniversary season.

Irish Arts Center (IAC), a multidisciplinary center dedicated to bringing people of all backgrounds together through the excellence and dynamism of Irish arts and culture, announces its Fall 2019 Season. As construction of the New Irish Arts Center progresses, IAC kicks off its final year in its intimate current home with an array of gripping performances and events. (The Center's 51st Street home will be renovated following the opening of the new, adjacent 11th Avenue building). Music programming encompasses exemplars of contemporary classical, trad, jazz, and soaring pop, and the organization is thrilled to honor icon Elvis Costelloa?"deemed one of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time by Rolling Stonea?"at this year's Spirit of Ireland Gala (October 18). Literary events feature vital voices in poetry and prose and honor legendary contributors to both forms; performances push the boundaries of Irish dance; and, across numerous master classes, talks, and family events, IAC continues to serve as a growing hub for community, conversation, engagement, and education.

Alarm Will Sound today announces the release of its latest album The Hunger, out Friday, August 23, 2019 on Nonesuch Records. The Hunger is a riveting modern cantata by renowned contemporary composer Donnacha Dennehy rooted in the emotional, political, and socioeconomic devastation of Ireland's Great Famine (1845-52) and features performances by Alarm Will Sound, soprano Katherine Manley, and sean nós singer Iarla Ó Lionáird.

Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC) announces the Fall 2019 season of dance, music, and multimedia presentations, running September 27 through December 6. Tickets from $15-$25 for all BAC Presents performances are on sale now at bacnyc.org or 866 811 4111. BAC also announces BAC Space Fall 2019, providing creative residencies to artists across disciplines to develop new works of dance, theater, music, and multimedia.

Following a nationwide search, Kupferberg Center for the Arts at Queens College is proud to welcome Jon Yanofsky as its new director who will lead the organization as it continues to inspire and connect the larger Queens community. Jon's first day was May 6th, 2019.

On May 9-10, Irish singer, actor, and songwriter Lisa Lambe (of Celtic Women) will make an exhilarating return to Irish Arts Center for performances of work from her second solo album. Alt-pop artist Rachael Sage, acclaimed for her 'rich vocals, sparkling piano and yearning poetry' (Time Out New York), will perform songs from her upcoming acoustic album, PseudoMyopia (May 23) as part of Irish Arts Center's SongLives series showcasing Ireland and North America's most exciting contemporary singer-songwriters.

92Y and the Irish Arts Center join forces to present unique weekend of unparalleled Irish and Irish-American choreography and discussion with Fridays at Noon and Dig Dance programs. The Irish Arts Center is a leading cultural center of Irish arts in NYC.

NY Madness is excited to announce it's April 2019 line-up as a Madness Co-Produced by Elephant Run District! The event will take place on Sunday, April 28th at 8pm at The Kraine Theater (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Avenue and Bowery). The lineup will include:

Singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Rachael Sage has released her new acoustic album PseudoMyopia, today via MPress Records/ILS/Universal. Purchase PseudoMyopia here.  Sage will support the album with a full schedule of performances throughout the year, including an official album release launch at NYC's prestigious Joe's Pub, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary season. See below for the list of tour dates.

Irish Arts Center, a multidisciplinary home for contemporary Irish arts and culture, teams with internationally-acclaimed, Olivier Award-winning Irish theatre company Fishamble to present Margaret McAuliffe's The Humours of Bandon. This wonderful one-woman show (The Stage) has garnered vast acclaim across its tours of Ireland and Wales and a stop at Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where The Scotsman called it a witty and poignant story that invites you to climb inside and enjoy the ride, told by a performer who has lived and breathed the world she so expertly conveys. The Humours of Bandon centers around an ambitious teenage Irish dancer and the grueling preparations she's undertaken, in her young life, to achieve. (Writer/performer McAuliffe is herself a former championship Irish dancer, and devoted 18 years to the form).

In celebration of International Women's Day, Singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Rachael Sage has released the acoustic version of her longtime fan favorite “Sistersong” along with a fan-sourced video for her song “Spark” via Popmatters. Both songs appear on her forthcoming album PseudoMyopia, out March 22 via MPress Records/ILS/Universal.

Irish Arts Center, a multidisciplinary center dedicated to bringing people of all backgrounds together through the excellence and dynamism of Irish arts and culture, announces this year's editions of beloved programs surrounding St. Patrick's Day: 20th Annual St. Patrick's Open Day (March 10), the 7th Annual Celtic Appalachian Celebration (March 15), and the 9th Annual Book Day (March 15). The programming exemplifies Irish Arts Center's unique role within the packed New York cultural landscape, as an organization that builds bridges between the traditional and the contemporary and between Ireland and other cultures across America and around the world.

Carnegie Hall's citywide festival, Migrations: The Making of America kicks off with Live from Here with Chris Thile on Saturday, March 9 at 5:45 p.m. in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage. Debs Composer's Chair Chris Thile is joined by Grammy Award-winning banjo player Béla Fleck, renowned bassist Edgar Meyer, multi-award winning Gaelic singer Julie Fowlis, and Irish-American singer and songwriter Aoife O'Donovan for an evening of traditional Scots, Irish, and American folk music.

Irish Arts Center (IAC), a multidisciplinary center dedicated to bringing people of all backgrounds together through the excellence and dynamism of Irish arts and culture, presents Dannielle Tegeder: Drawing Room, the Field Guide to Experimental Irish Literature, January 11-April 7. For this active exhibition, New York artist Dannielle Tegeder reached out to select contemporary Irish poets, asking them to contribute a work of theirs, in some way evoking or thematically related to Ireland. Using sheets of archival paper printed with these pieces, Tegeder has begun-and will continue-responding to their words through abstract drawing and collage. The exhibition will have several different iterations, changing and evolving as new collaborations between artist and poet emerge.

Irish Arts Center (IAC) presents an eclectic live musical lineup for its Spring 2019 season. From February through May, veteran talents and unmissable breakout voices working across the spectrum of tradition and contemporaneity will captivate IAC audiences. The season exemplifies IAC's unwavering devotion to offering a nurturing cultural home to artists-fueling thrilling collaborations and providing them with an intimate space in which to lay bare the depths of their work.  

The crowd-pleasing rugby play "Alone It Stands" scored Best Production at the 2019 Origin 1st Irish Theatre Festival's closing night festivities at The Manhattan Club at Rosie O'Grady's in Times Square tonight. The locally produced American premiere of "Alone It Stands," a play with an illustrious production history in Ireland, The West End and elsewhere, was nominated in four categories, and played at 59E59 Theaters. Two critically acclaimed productions imported from Ireland -- "On Blueberry Hill" (at 59E59 Theaters through February 3) and "The Morning After the Life Before" which played at the cell - also had big wins, with "On Blueberry Hill" (produced by Fishamble: The New Play Co in Dublin) earning Best Actor for Niall Buggy and Best Design; and "The Morning After the Life Before" (produced by Dublin's Guna Nua Theatre) winning Best Actress for Lucia Smyth, and Best Director for Paul Meade.

Productions and plays from Ireland face off against several homegrown New York productions as the 11th annual Origin 1st Irish Theatre Festival hands out its awards at a closing night ceremony at Rosie O'Grady's Manhattan Club, 800 Seventh Avenue, on Monday January 28 at 7pm.  Origin 1st Irish 2019, the world's only theatre festival dedicated to showcasing the work of contemporary Irish playwrights from around the world, began on January 9. Among the festival's six mainstage productions in competition, five are US premieres, and one is a world premiere. To RSVP to the awards ceremony, which is a free event, visit www.origintheatre.org

Irish Arts Center (IAC), a multidisciplinary center dedicated to bringing people of all backgrounds together through the excellence and dynamism of Irish arts and culture, announces its Spring 2019 season a cross-section of the exhilarating theater, music, dance, literature, art, and genre-defying performance coming from Ireland and Irish America, alongside educational events engaging participants with an array of rich traditions. With performances as wide-ranging as Margaret McAuliffe's acclaimed one-woman play The Humours of Bandon, Declan O'Rourke's epic song cycle Chronicles of the Great Irish Famine, and Paul Muldoon's performance adaptation of a 1773 Irish poem, IAC provides an intimate home for artists' boldest visions. As construction on IAC's landmark permanent new home in Hell's Kitchen takes place just beyond the organization's original location, IAC's vast ambition and accomplishment will be on full display, outside and in, throughout Spring 2019.