Print Issue: December 5, 2002

Celtic Christmas Concert Brings Together Music, Dance In 10th Anniversary Celebration

Irish step dancers perform in the Atlanta Celtic Christmas Concert. The 10th anniversary production to be held Dec. 13-14 at Emory University portrays the Christmas traditions of the Celtic lands through music, dance, poetry and song, and how they influenced Southern traditions. (Photos by Clark R. Hill) James Flannery is director of the W.B. Yeats Foundation at Emory University and producer of and performer in the 10th annual concert. Here he sings the Appalachian hymn "I Wonder as I Wander." Harpist Kelly Stewart, 23, has been performing at the annual Celtic Christmas production since she was 15.

By Priscilla Greear, Staff Writer

ATLANTA - The poet William Butler Yeats once declared that "in Ireland, this world and the world we go to after death are not far apart."

Expanding on those words, a 9-year-old girl steps on stage and, dressed as a fairy, reads from a 7th century Celtic poem from Ireland's monastic tradition: "Who is God and where is God, of whom is God, and where his dwelling? Is He in heaven or on Earth, in the sea, in the rivers, in the mountains, in the valleys? Is it in youth or is it in old age He is found?"

A performer sings the Appalachian hymn "I Wonder as I Wander" of Jesus' birth in a cow stall surrounded by "wise men 'n cattle 'n farmers n'all" with accompaniment by a Celtic harp, fiddle and tin whistle, creating a particularly earthy vision of the Virgin and child. An Irish step dancer, Scottish highland dancer and Georgia clog dancer stomp the stage side by side.

They are pieces of the poetry in motion of the gala 10th anniversary Atlanta Celtic Christmas Concert Dec. 13-14, celebrating Christ's birth through Celtic and Southern poetry, dance, stories and song. The W. B. Yeats Foundation of Emory University, which promotes Irish culture, is hosting the concert on the Emory campus. It will express the emphasis in Christianity in the Celtic lands of Ireland, Scotland and Wales, of God's mystical and ubiquitous presence in the mundane, minute and majestic on earth. It will also focus on how that tradition spread over the sea and helped shape Southern, particularly Appalachian, music and dance. The featured guest artist is roots musician Norman Blake, musical star of "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" whose soundtrack won a Grammy and sold over five million copies, sparking renewed interest in music rooted in raw sounds and ordinary life.

Show director James Flannery, director of the Yeats Foundation and Emory fine arts professor, initiated the concert a decade ago out of a desire to express that Celtic spirituality doesn't confine God and to encapsulate the "mystical tradition at the heart of Celtic Christianity." he pours out Irish poetry and prayers like one might from a pitcher of Irish ale in conversation. From St. Patrick's legendary prayer of protection, "St. Patrick's Breastplate," he declares: "Christ within me, Christ above me, Christ beside me."

Flannery enthusiastically explained that when missionary St. Patrick brought Christianity to Ireland, the Irish already had a belief through the Druid nature worship in the presence of God everywhere, which provided the ideal setting for their peaceful conversion. "In the nature worship encountered by St. Patrick when he converted the Irish to Christianity, the world was holy - not just parts but all. This is still at the core of the traditional art forms of the Celtic lands, which were carried across the sea by many of the original settlers of the American South. This, more than anything else, makes these traditions notable for their poetic expressiveness and the childlike acceptance of the blessedness of life," he said.

The concert is a way for Flannery, a Catholic and son of Irish immigrants, to spread the Christmas message of hope and renewal without being "churchy."

"Other than getting together with the family it is the highlight of my own (Christmas) tradition. For many, many people it becomes a must-see event. They come back year after year. It's deep spirituality without being preachy and without above all being commercial," said the Irish-American Renaissance man who is a singer, scholar, stage director, producer and cultural activist.

"It's a mystical tradition and I always have loved it," he continued. "It carried over a great deal of nature worship of Druids. You get in the prayers an incredible amount of nature imagery" also found in Appalachian hymns.

He noted that "it's a tradition at the heart of the Roman Catholic tradition with the mystical body of Christ through the Holy Spirit." God's presence can be captured in a powerful way through elements of Catholic liturgy such as Gregorian chant and Benediction, and artwork like statues and stained glass. Flannery recalled how Yeats at the end of his life described God as "imminent, flowing and phenomenal" - not only positioned against a Jewish temple but against the Druid forest. "(It's) the idea of God as imminent, flowing and phenomenal -imminent in being a living presence, flowing in being in many different forms and phenomenal as being apprehensible through the senses." Yeats' poem "The Magi" will flavor the show with its themes of suffering and renewal and assertion that "the Holy Spirit is found in the most unusual of places."

The other concert focus is on the connection between Celtic and Southern cultures. One of the goals of the Yeats Foundation is to increase awareness of the heritage of the historically Protestant Scots-Irish to promote understanding and reconciliation in Northern Ireland, through which their cousins here, composing one of the largest and most influential ethnic groups in the South, can make a contribution back home out of that appreciation. Flannery, who was honored with a Governor's Award in the Humanities by the Georgia Humanities Council for his work promoting Irish culture and its connection with the culture of the American South, said there is a general lack of understanding among the Scots-Irish Protestants in Northern Ireland, where conflict has existed with Catholics for centuries. "It's one of the things arts can help to promote - reconciliation in Northern Ireland. Everyone knows what the Irish tradition is, but people know less about what Scots-Irish tradition is."

During the concert roots musician Blake, who has had more than 30 recordings and six Grammy nominations in the 1990s, will be joined by his wife Nancy. Celebrating the "universal ordinary," other guest artists will include Maggie Holtzberg, a fiddler and director of folk arts for the Massachusetts Arts Council, and from Northern Ireland Robert Watt, world champion Highland piper, and Emma Culbert, an all-Ireland accordion champion.

The concert will also feature a line-up of some of the top traditional performers in the Atlanta area including Flannery, a tenor, the Buddy O'Reilly Band, Gateway Performance Production, the four-part Gospel singers of Nonesuch and folk-singers Barbara Panter and Maura Nelligan. The Atlanta children's choir Harmony will perform an Afro-Celtic arrangement of the Welsh carol "Deck the Halls." Harpist Kelly Stewart, 23, will also return to the stage, having started in the show at age 15.

The concert is at 8 p.m. at Glenn Memorial Hall on the Emory University Campus. Tickets are $12.50 in advance; $15 at the door; $5 for children 12 and under, with Emory students free. Tickets are available at the Emory Box Office at (404) 727-5050, Fado Irish Pub in Buckhead or Dekalb Musician's Supply. For general inquiries call the Yeats Foundation at (404) 727-6180.

Roots musician Norman Blake is the guest artist at the Celtic Christmas concert. He has made more than 30 recordings, was a musical voice of George Clooney in the movie "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" and has toured with musicians including Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan.