Local News
Celtic Christmas Concert To Be Held At Emory
Published: December 4, 2003
ATLANTA—The 11th annual Atlanta Celtic Christmas Concert will be held Dec. 12 and 13 at Emory University’s new Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts at 8 p.m.
This year’s concert features Cormac De Barra and Kelly Stewart, two of the top young harpers in the Celtic world. They will display their talents in a suite of harp airs that demonstrate the similarities and differences between the musical traditions of Ireland and Wales. They will also perform Christmas lullabies in both Welsh and Irish and will join their talents with those of James Flannery and the singers of the Emory Early Music Ensemble in an arrangement for two wire-strung harps of “Silent Night.”
Down through the ages the tradition of the harp has been synonymous with the mystical heritage of the Celtic lands. In Ireland and Wales, the harper was the highest ranked of all artists, second only to the poets.
So effective were the healing properties of the harp that it was played to soften the labor of childbirth or to assuage the pains of wounded warriors.
De Barra, a member of one of Ireland’s most prominent families in the field of traditional music, has represented his country at numerous international festivals. His recent recording of harp airs, “Barcó,” has received rave reviews and international airplay, including Fiona Ritchie’s “Thistle and Shamrock.” He and James Flannery, producer of the Atlanta Celtic Christmas Concert, have completed a recording, “Heart Mystery: Traditional Love Songs of the Irish,” featuring some 50 of the most romantic of the harp airs. Atlanta’s Kelly Stewart holds a master’s degree in harp music from the University of Wales. A favorite performer at the Celtic Christmas Concert for many years, Ms. Stewart is the master of the Welsh triple harp—an instrument of astonishing rhythmic and harmonic complexity.
As always, this year’s Celtic Christmas Concert will include a variety of music, poetry, dance and song to celebrate the season and to highlight Southern traditions.
This is the first year the concert is being held at the new Schwartz Center.
The concert will begin both Dec. 12 and 13 at 8 p.m.
Tickets, which are $20 for general admission, $16 for group discount, faculty and staff of Emory, and $8 for Emory students and children, may be purchased by calling the Emory Box Office at (404) 727-5050.
For more information, call Dr. James Flannery or Carl Moser at the W.B. Yeats Foundation at Emory University at (404) 727-6180 or e-mail Flannery at jflanne@emory.edu.
