The Common Ground on the Hill
Baltimore Concert Series
Presented by Brown Memorial Woodbrook Presbyterian Church
Held Monthly December - April
6200 North Charles St., Baltimore, Md. 21212
Showtime 8:00 PM
Seating begins at 7:30 PM
Directions click here
*All tickets purchased online will be available for pick-up at Will-Call the day of the show*
Admission: $19, $17 Students, Seniors 65+ and teens
To Buy Tickets click here
(Please print your receipt to bring with you to the concert)
or call 410-857-2771
Click here to view the Westminster Concert Series
The Concerts
Masters of the Celtic Harp
Grainne Hambly & William Jackson
Friday, March 2nd, 2012
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Two great players. One fantastic show. Quite simply, Gráinne Hambly and William Jackson are two of the foremost harpers of Ireland and Scotland. Combining their extraordinary talents on harp as well as concertina, tinwhistle and bouzouki, The Masters of the Celtic Harp have been performing all over the country and dazzling audiences with their artistry. With demanding solo careers that often have them performing on different continents, their Two Sides of Celtic show is a special treat.
A lifelong County Mayo resident, Gráinne Hambly has been touring extensively throughout the United States since 1998 and has not only garnered an ever-growing following of devoted harp enthusiasts but has managed to cross over and capture the Irish music fan with the taste for the fast, driving reels and jigs of traditional music. She has broken the genteel parlor image and elevated the stature of the harp right up there with the fiddles and pipes in the realm of dynamic dance music. Add to that the unsurpassed expressive quality the harp has in her hands in the rendition of age-old airs and laments and you have the masterful performance of an experienced and renowned player.
William Jackson of Glasgow has been at the forefront of Scottish traditional music for nearly 30 years. In addition to his stature as one of the leading harpers and multi-instrumentalists in Scotland, William has gained an international reputation as a composer. His "Land of Light" won the international competition in 1999 as the new song for Scotland. William was a founding member and creative tour de force of Ossian in 1976, which became one of Scotland's best-loved traditional bands. The band, whose music influenced a generation of musicians, extensively toured the U.S. and Europe. Besides harp, he also plays tinwhistle and bouzouki.
While working with Ossian, he established himself as a composer and has steadily knit together Celtic influences with classical instrumentation in a style uniquely his own. He has an impressive list of commissioned works and subsequent recordings, including "The Wellpark Suite," "St. Mungo", and "Inchcolm", a 1996 commission from the Scottish Chamber Orchestra called "A Scottish Island" and his latest commission, "Duan Albanach", created for the 2002 opening of the Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow. In November 2007, he performed with the Asheville Symphony in a debut of his "Scottish Fantasia". His latest CD release is "The New Harp", featuring his own compositions as well as traditional pieces. He has composed music in Scotland for the BBC and Scottish television and recently directed and performed the music for "The Battle of the Clans" for the History Channel. William's performance on harp, whistle and bodhran is featured on the soundtrack of A Shot at Glory, starring Robert Duval and Michael Keaton, which was filmed in Scotland. Masters of the Celtic Harp
Irish Fiddle Master
Kevin Burke
8 PM ~ Friday, April 6th, 2012
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A lot of people think Irish music is wistful and melancholy. That’s one side of it, but there’s also a great, rough, resilient spirit in the music, an element of joy underlying even the most plaintive melody. I grew up listening to musicians with that spirit and I value it. So much in music today makes people passive, bored and boring: three things I never want to be. ~ Kevin Burke
Kevin Burke needn’t worry. His sparkling, lyrical fiddle playing has earned him a reputation as one of the finest, most influential players in music today. From The Bothy Band to Patrick Street, he has defined Irish fiddling for a generation. His work with artists as disparate as Kate Bush, Arlo Guthrie and Christy Moore has given him an audience that not only spans continents, it defies attempts at categorization. Described as "one of the greatest Celtic fiddlers alive" by The New York Times, Burke was recognized with a National Heritage Fellowship Award by the National Endowment For the Arts in 2002, this country’s highest honor in the traditional arts. In 2005, he was named one of Irish America’s Top 100 by Irish America Magazine. Kevinburke.com
Nuala Kennedy Band
8 PM ~ Friday, September 21st, 2012
James Keelaghan
8 PM ~ Friday, October 5th, 2012
The Burns Sisters
8 PM ~ Friday, November 2nd, 2012
Walt Michael & Co.
8 PM ~ Friday, December 7th, 2012
Margot Leverett and the Klezmer Mountain Boys
8 PM ~ Friday, January 4th, 2013
Joyce Scott
8 PM ~ Friday, February 1st, 2013
Tom Paxton
8 PM ~ Friday, March 1st, 2013
The Kruger Brothers
8 PM ~ Friday, April 5th, 2013
Click here to view the Westminster Concert Series
