IRISH TRAVEL & CULTURE GUIDE
FALL - WINTER 2012
November 2012
THE GLAD TIDINGS OF CHRISTMAS MUSIC
“It’s coming on Christmas, they’re cutting down trees They’re putting up reindeers and singing songs of joy and peace.” - Joni Mitchell
Songs of joy and peace – the soundtrack of holiday magic and memory we carry through our lives. As families reunite, friends get together and neighbors offer good cheer, music warms our hearts and triggers our deepest human emotions.
Massachusetts, it turns out, has a proud tradition of Christmas music dating back to the 17th century, when early settlers gathered in austere little churches dotting the Bay State landscape, singing religious psalms that celebrated the birth of Christ.
And in 1818, Boston’s Handel & Haydn Society performed the American premier of George Handel’s Messiah, perhaps the world’s most revered Christmas song, at Kings Chapel on Tremont Street. (Coincidentally, the very first performance of Handel’s famous oratorio premiered in Dublin, Ireland in 1742.)
And locals had their hand in popular Christmas songs too. In 1857 James Pierpont wrote Jingle Bells for his Sunday school in Boston, and in more recent times, Cambridge native Leroy Anderson wrote Sleigh Ride, first recorded by Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops in 1949.
2012 HOLIDAY SHOWS
Today holiday music is as vibrant as ever in Massachusetts, and indeed throughout New England. In fact, Handel’s Messiah launches this year’s Christmas season at Mechanics Hall in Worcester on Saturday, December 1, as the Worcester Chorus gives its 113th annual performance. Christopher Shepard conducts the Festival Orchestra.
The Holiday Pops, led by conductor Keith Lockhart of the Boston Pops Orchestra, runs at Boston Symphony Hall from December 5-24, 2012, with multiple performances, including matinees for families.
Holiday Pops has been running continuously since 1975, and is one of the defining holiday traditions in Boston. Expect to hear classic Christmas melodies, including Sleigh Ride, Jingle Bells, and plenty of sacred music, jingles, and sing-alongs.
Reagle Music Theatre of Greater Boston is presenting its 30th performance of Christmas Time, running from December 7-16 at Robinson Theatre in Waltham. It’s a Christmas spectacular featuring forty sings, a full orchestra, 20 dancers, and 75 elves, along with Victorian carolers and a Nativity pageant.
IRISH CHRISTMAS SHOWS
There’s no shortage of lively Irish holiday shows in New England this season, starting with Tony Kenny’s Christmas Time in Ireland, which comes to the Rogers Center in North Andover on November 30. It’s a cabaret of music and dance, storytelling and humor presented by an all-star cast from Dublin.
On December 5, the Gaelic Roots program at Boston College presents its annual Christmas Gathering, featuring guest artists Gabriel Donohue and Marian Makins. They’re joined by fiddle legend Seamus Connolly and other local musicians and dancers. The concert is free and open to the public.
On December 9, Irish harpist Aine Minogue performs her holiday show, To Warm the Winter’s Night, at the Cape Cod Cultural Center in South Yarmouth. Aine also performs her show at Club Passim in Harvard Square, Cambridge on December 20.
Blackstone River Theatre is in the Christmas spirit all through December. On December 1, the Clancy Legacy Christmas Celebration features Aoife Clancy, Robbie O’Connell, George Keith and Erik Wendelken. On December 9 the theatre hosts an all-day Holiday Craft Fair and Festival, followed by an Irish Dance Christmas Spectacular on December 10. Blackstone caps the holiday season with its two-day Christmas Celebration on December 15-16.
One of the most successful Irish-flavored shows is Christmas Celtic Sojourn, hosted by popular radio personality Brian O’Donovan of WGBH (see profile on page six). Celebrating its 10th season, this year’s show presents an all-star line-up: Solas, Catriona McKay and Chris Stout, Alyth McCormack, Navan, and Natalie Haas, along with the Harney Academy of Irish Dance, and legendary dancers Cara Butler and the Pilatske brothers. Performances in Derry, NH, Boston, Rockport, Worcester and Providence RI are enhanced this year by a national broadcast on December 16 to PBS stations around the country.
On December 20 the Boston Police Gaelic Column of Pipes and Drums holds its Christmas gathering at the Hoosic Club in Milton. Christmas tunes on the bagpipes? You’ve got to check it out.
Also passing through the region this year is Irish Christmas in America, created by Oisin Mac Diarmada of the Irish band Teada. This year’s lineup includes guest singer Aaron Jones, Seamus Begley, Grainne Hambly, Brian Cunningham and Sean McElwain, and they’re performing two shows at the Irish Cultural Centre in Canton on December 21.