
Randal Bays, traditional Irish fiddle player, conducts a multi-instrumental workshop and concert.
Randal Bays, traditional Irish fiddle player, conducts a multi-instrumental workshop and concert.
Craobh Dugan-O’Looney, with grateful assistance from the Government of Ireland Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Emigrant Support Program, Meitheal North America, and Comhaltas North America, is sponsoring a multi-instrumental traditional Irish music workshop and concert with Seattle musician Randal Bays, on Friday, March 10th.
Randal Bays is an American born, Irish style fiddler and guitarist who brings power and passion to the old tradition. He’s well known on both sides of the Atlantic for his fiery fiddling and his devotion to the traditional style of playing. He has a special love for the fiddle traditions of Counties Clare and Galway, where he’s spent many a night playing tunes with the masters of that intricate music.
Randal has recorded and toured in the US, Ireland and Europe with such musicians as Martin Hayes, James Keane and Daithí Sproule (Fingal), James Kelly and many more. In 2021 he received the Irish Artist in America Achievement Award from O’Flaherty Irish Music in Texas. Randal lives in the Seattle area and is the Artistic Director of Cascadia Irish Music Week.
As part of his Northeast Tour, Randal will be coming to Utica to conduct a workshop in the afternoon, where he’ll be teaching tunes in a comfortable and non-intimidating setting, and then later that evening he will give a performance of traditional Irish music in the H.A.R.P Museum at the Irish Cultural Center of the Mohawk Valley.
The workshop, which will take place at 2 PM at Mohawk Valley Strings (2048 Genesee St Utica), is designed to be multi-instrumental, applicable to melody instruments such as fiddles, flutes, whistles, banjos, mandolins, and other instruments typically found at an Irish music session. The cost for attending this 60-90 minute workshop is $20.
The concert, set for 7 PM, will take place in the Irish Cultural Center’s H.A.R.P. Museum on the 2nd floor. The price for the concert alone is $10 in advance and $20 at the door, and the cost for attending both the workshop and the concert is $25. For ticketing information and more details, visit EventBrite at http://bit.ly/3Ezl7U5.
The Irish Cultural Center is located at 623 Columbia St. in Utica NY.