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altan*25thAniversary“AltancontinuestobeoneoftheCelticworld’sgreattreasures,giftedwithafrontlinethatissheerpowerhouse.”LATIMES“MorethananyIrishgroup,thisDonegalquintetisseenaskeeperofthetraditionalflame.”THEBOSTONGLOBEWWW.IMNWORLD.COM/ALTANWWW.ALTAN.IE

All Bookings and Enquiries: MPI - Martin Nolan & Associates, Booking Agency & EntertainmentConsultants tel +353 16684017 email info@mpibands.com web www.mpibands.com The Gasworks, 10Upper Grand Canal Street, Dublin 2, IrelandOver those 25 years they have established themselves as one of themost important live acts to play traditional Irish music in Irelandand on the World stage. The Boston Globe has described them as“The hottest group in the Celtic realm!” Altan have toured all overthe USA and Europe. They also enjoy popularity in Japan wherethey frequently tour and have hosted Altan festivals in the middle ofTokyo to thousands of enthusiastic fans.Founding members, the late Frankie Kennedy and his partnerMairéad Ní Mhaonaigh, lead singer and fiddler with the band, begantheir musical career whilst teaching in a school in Malahide inNorth County Dublin, playing music for fun and enjoyment notknowing that it would end up as their main way of life and bringthem all over the world! Frankie and Mairead started out by playingwith and meeting older musicians from the Donegal tradition, likeJohn Doherty, Con Cassidy, James Byrne, DinnyMcLaughlin,Vincent Campbell and Mairéad’s own father Francie,Listen to 'The Roseville'Listen to 'Cití Ní Eadhra'Listen to 'Donal agus Morag'

who shared their music with them and most importantly, theirfriendship. The pair learned their music, tried to emulate their styleand listened to their general philosophy of life, which, in retrospectwas just as important as the music. Later it would be Francie whotranslated the beautiful Gaelic songs into English on all of the Altanrecordings to date. Francie was also responsible for the translationsof ‘Barbara Allen’ and ‘In the Sweet Bye and Bye’ on two projectswith the legendary Dolly Parton which Altan were involved with.Frankie and Mairead made their first forays into live shows in theUSA in 1985, releasing two albums together as a duo; 1983’s “CeolAduaidh” (Music of the North) and the self-titled “Altan” in 1987.Altan as a band began as a quartet with Frankie on flute, Mairéad onfiddle and songs, joined by Ciaran Curran on bouzouki and MarkKelly and Dáithí Sproule sharing the role of guitar player, Marktouring with the band in Europe and Dáithí in the States. Later PaulO’Shaughnessy on fiddle joined, augmenting and driving the soundof the band to new levels on Green Linnet recordings “Horse with aHeart” (1989), “The Red Crow” (1990), “Harvest Storm” (1991)and “Island Angel” (1993). “The Red Crow” became the first ofthree Altan albums to win the prestigious “Celtic/British IslesAlbum of the Year” award from the National Association ofIndependent Record Distributors and Manufacturers (NAIRD).Download Altan BiographyAltan - Full Group scenic (5.5MB)Altan - Full Group outdoor (6.8MB)Altan - Full Group session (7.7MB)Altan - Full Group Donegal (8.6MB)Altan - Irish postage stamp 2006http://www.altan.ieFrankie Kennedy and MairéadNí Mhaonaigh - Ceol Aduaidh(1983)Ciaran Tourish on fiddle and whistle joined the band for the“Harvest Storm“ recording, adding his innovative harmonies andcounter melodies. The context of having three fiddles in the bandhelped drive Altan to newer heights and introduced the Donegalfiddle tunes, which the band became reknowned for, to a muchwider audience. Q magazine described “Island Angel” as a“combination of head spinning drive and pure melancholy”,qualities that gave the band “a one-two punch that is unmatched incontemporary folk circles.” Altan are no stranger to the Billboardworld music charts, “Island Angel” was the fourth-best-sellingFrankie Kennedy and Mairéad Ní

album in 1994.In the meantime Frankie Kennedy was diagnosed with cancer, butcontinued to steer the band to international recognition andnegotiating with Virgin Records UK, to sign the band before hisdeath in September 1994. This was a significant signing, as up untilthis traditional music was not on any major label. Altan recordedthree albums for Virgin records; “Blackwater” (1996), “RunawaySunday” (1997) and “The Blue Idol” (2002). This merger with amajor record label helped Altan bring their music, song and cultureto a wider audience worldwide and paved the way for up andcoming younger bands to tour extensively all over the world -crucially the band made no musical compromise to the traditionalmusic they played and recorded.Altan have proven to be important ambassadors of the music andculture of Ireland, so much so that they were invited to accompanythe Irish President, Mary McAleese on several State visits, visitingGreece, Korea and Japan. Altan were asked to play at the WhiteHouse twice by US President Bill Clinton, and played again for himwhen he visited Ireland. In 2006, the Irish government honoured theband by putting them on an official Irish postage stamp, one of thehighest honours bestowed upon any living artist in Ireland (the onlyothers honoured in this set of four stamps were The Chieftains, TheDubliners and Makem and Clancy). Altan have been invited to playby Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the US House of Representatives in2007, and were granted the celebrated “Arkansas Traveller” awardfrom state governor Mike Huckabee. “Tommy Bhetty’s Waltz”from the Red Crow album was featured in the oscar-winning filmGood Will Hunting starring Robin Williams in 1997.Altan have played their music in some of the most prestigiousvenues in the world; The Sydney Opera House, The HollywoodBowl, The Royal Albert Hall, The Alte Opera Frankfurt, The GreekTheatre Los Angeles and many, many more. They have playedmusic and recorded with The Chieftains, Dolly Parton Bonnie Raitt,Alison Krauss, Ricky Skaggs to name but a few. In 2003 they wonthe award for Best Group at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. In2005, they recorded their latest studio album “Local Ground” andlike every other Altan offering it was met with positive andenthusiastic reviews. The band have gained gold and platinum statusin Ireland with their record sales and have won numerous awards inthe music business as one of the most popular bands playingtraditional folk or world music in the world.Mhaonaigh - Altan (1987)Horse with a Heart (1989)The Red Crow (1990)Harvest Storm (1991)Island Angel (1993)

In recent years Altan have been exploring and experimenting withtheir music using orchestral arrangements of their most popularpieces. The arrangements have been scored by the highly respectedarranger, Fiachra Trench and have been performed with the UlsterOrchestra, The RTÉ Concert Orchestra and with the Royal ScottishOpera Orchestra. Altan hope to record an orchestral album soon andthey are also in pre-production on another studio album whichshould be released by the end of 2009.Blackwater (1996)Runaway Sunday (1997)2006 - Altan was honoured by the Irish goverment with this postagestamp, along with The Chieftains, The Dubliners and Makem &Clancy; the only four acts included in this seriesAnother Sky (2000)Altan have released several compilations of their most popular workover the years including "The First Ten Years" (1995) and "TheBest of Altan - The Songs" (2003)The Blue Idol (2002)

Local Ground (2005)Mairead ni Mhaonaigh is widely considered one of Ireland's finestvocalists.MPI - Martin Nolan & AssociatesBooking Agency & Entertainment ConsultantsThe Gasworks,10 Upper Grand Canal Street,Dublin 2,Irelandtel - + 353 1 6684017email info@mpibands.comweb www.mpibands.com

Ireland’s Gift to the World: The Celtic Masters of AltanCelebrate a Quarter Century of Tradition and InnovationThe Sydney Opera House and the mist-strewn heather of Donegal. Jigging Japanese and Bill Clinton.Lonely lighthouse keepers and Dolly Parton. The roar of the Celtic Tiger and eerie fiddle tunesinspired by forest birds.These moments and milestones capture the quarter century-long journey of Altan, one of Ireland‟smost striking and reputable groups. Leaping like their homeland from earthy and moving tradition toworld-wide notoriety, the acclaimed sextet celebrates a quarter century with Altan: 25 th AnniversaryCelebration (Compass Records), a new recording of lush, sensitive orchestrations by renownedIrish composer Fiachra Trench performed by the RTE Concert Orchestra, as well as a spring tour ofNorth America.It all started when singer and fiddler Mairéad Ni Mhaonaigh was still in the cradle in her stronglytraditional native region of Donegal, listening and trying desperately to sing to the songs her parentsused to soothe her. Her family‟s home was a hub for poets, musicians, and writers who would sharetheir work into the wee hours. “People would come and stay at our house and tell stories and playsongs,” Ni Mhaonaigh recalls fondly. “Sometimes it would end up like a party, with people playingoutside the house until late at night. We were in the country, though, so we weren‟t botheringanybody.”The homes, fields, and forests all around were populated by traditional singers—and traditional

songs. “People would say that a song was composed by a local person, and we would see the housewhere they lived. So there was a lot more involved than just learning tunes; we learned the socialhistory, too.”Ni Mhaonaigh remembers one particularly brilliant and otherworldly local composer: “There was theman who was said to be the best fiddle player around. He would go to the forest and listen to theblackbirds and tape their sounds. Maybe because he was so good, he wasn‟t a part of the normalsociety. People revered musicians like him so much they were put into a magical sphere,” she smiles.“We come from Donegal and when the mist falls over the heather here, you can imagine that otherworld being very close.”The work of traditional musicians and this sense of history, mystery, and place—the group is namedfor a deep lake in Donegal—Altan carried with them into smoky Dublin and Belfast clubs to theSydney Opera House, Royal Albert Hall, and the Hollywood Bowl. Over the course of two and a halfdecades, the music project Ni Mhaonaigh and her late husband and longtime musical partner FrankieKennedy began for the sheer love it grew into an ensemble that crystallizes the beauty and power ofIrish tradition.This beauty and power impressed Irish president Mary McAleese, who took the band with her onstate visits, and President Bill Clinton, among many other of the world‟s movers and shakers. It turnedstaid Japanese folk fans into frenzied dancers and mad collectors of bootlegs and rare vinyl that NiMhaonaigh and Kennedy barely remembered recording.It wowed American country idols like Ricky Scaggs and Dolly Parton, whose producer approachedAltan with a collaboration idea while they were passing through Nashville. “We thought some of ourfriends were having one over on us. We took the whole thing very lightly until he got halfway throughhis proposal,” Ni Mhaonaigh laughs. “It was wonderful working with her.”The beauty and power of tradition run through the songs, jigs, and reels on Altan: 25 th AnniversaryCelebration (Compass Records), in a fitting tribute to the band‟s methodical research, stunningmusicianship, and profound passion for Celtic music and poetry from Cape Breton (“Bog an Lochain”)or Ulster (“I Wish My Love was a Red Red Rose”) and beyond.Archives yielded gems such as “Mo Ghaoil,” a sorrowful love song in Scottish Gaelic that a localsinger learned phonetically from a Scottish lighthouse keeper on Arranmore Island, off of Ireland‟snorthwest coast. Or “Donal agus Morag” from Rathlin Island, a rollicking account of the humorousmerrymaking at a Scottish-Irish wedding, with several additional verses penned by Ni Mhaonaigh‟sfather and first teacher, Francie.Francie and other musicians dear to Altan were the source of songs like “Cití na gCumann,” a song ofunrequited love Ni Mhaonaigh learned from her father. Or “Is the Big Man Within?,” a tune the groupgot from a County Clare native living in Florida that showcases the changing time signature of adouble or slip jig: “it changes abruptly in the middle. The women danced the softer one, and the menwould dance the harder one,” Ni Mhaonaigh explains.Yet Altan‟s innate creativity goes beyond its impeccable treatment of traditional tunes, and can be feltin the band‟s originals—songs like “The Roseville,” recalling guitarist Daíthí Sproule‟s time in the TwinCities, or Ni Mhaonaigh‟s touching tribute to her late husband, “A Tune for Frankie.”It also shines in the delicate yet rich orchestration crafted by Fiachra Trench and performed by theRTE Concert Orchestra. Though Altan had worked with a string quartet on past projects, this was thefirst time the group had recorded with the “luxury” of a full orchestra, as Ni Mhaonaigh puts it.

“We liked the lushness of it and the way it showed the colors of the harmonies better than, say, aguitar would. We asked Fiachra to expand the quartet arrangements he‟d done for us into orchestralarrangements, and it just fit like a glove,” Ni Mhaonaigh reflects.After two concerts, one in Belfast‟s Waterfront Hall and another in Dublin‟s National Hall, Altan andRTE felt they had to record the seamless yet intriguing blend, and the innovative results honor bothAltan‟s achievements and its musicians‟ ongoing vision for Irish music.Finding new paths for old ways is a particularly fitting role for Altan, with the great changes that haveswept across Ireland as it turned from European backwater into a Celtic Tiger roaring with newfoundprosperity and global culture. “I‟ve seen Ireland in my lifespan go from being nearly a „Third World‟country to one of the top economies of Europe. It‟s nice for people to not be at poverty‟s door all thetime, but perhaps money won‟t do us a lot of good in the long run,” Ni Mhaonaigh muses. “Now withthe recession, I see people being more reflective, and more in touch with who we are in this world,and asking what can we give the world that is different.“Ireland isn‟t known for its opera or classical music. What we are known for is our traditional music,our language, our culture. That‟s what we can give the world.”http://www.rockpaperscissors.biz/index.cfm/fuseaction/current.press_release/project_id/478.cfm

Album review: Altan's '25th Anniversary Celebration'By: Geoffrey HimesFriday, March 12, 2010ALTAN WITH THE R.T.E. CONCERT ORCHESTRA"25th Anniversary Celebration"Pairing a folk string band with a classical orchestra isoften a bad idea: The cohesiveness of the large ensemble canclash with the assertiveness of the small. But when theR.T.E Concert Orchestra, Ireland's public-radio houseorchestra, backs that country's great folk band Altan on"25th Anniversary Celebration," they blend unexpectedlywell. That's because precision harmonies are essential to Altan's music, and the orchestraexpands that signature sound without distorting it.The group, which has worked with a classical string quartet, asked Irish composer FiachraTrench to flesh out his chamber-music arrangements for a full orchestra. He does so quitetastefully, always allowing the folk quintet to own the foreground at the beginning of each songand bringing up the strings and woodwinds later to broaden the band's musical ideas. The ninesongs and six instrumental tracks -- two-thirds traditional and all previously recorded -- provide asumptuous tour of the band's quarter-century history.It helps that Altan's leader, Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh, is the Alison Krauss of Ireland -- a talentedfiddler and once-in-a-generation singer. When Ni Mhaonaigh warbles the slow air "I Wish MyLove Was a Red Red Rose," her soprano mirrors the lushness of the orchestra behind her and theyearning desire of the song's lover.

Review: Altan has crowd stomping, clappingSaturday, March 13, 2010By Geraldine FreedmanTROY — The celebrated Irish traditional band Altan played Friday night at the Troy SavingsBank Music Hall in a pre-St. Patrick’s Day concert that thrilled a large crowd filled with adevoted following. The concert, which was part of an almost four-week U.S. tour, marked theband’s 25th anniversary.Fiddler/vocalist and co-founder Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh, fiddler Ciaran Tourish, bouzouki playerCiaran Curran, accordionist Dermot Byrne and guitarist/vocalist Daithi Sproule, who is the onlyband member who lives in America, have accumulated high honors over the years ranging fromhaving an official Irish postage stamp and making very successful world tours to playing forpresidents and selling thousands of recordings. The fame is well deserved.Based just on Friday night’s performance, the band produced a robust sound with energy levelsthat never slackened. The band’s high level of technical expertise and the players’ delightfullythick brogue allowed them to create an illusory atmosphere redolent of the best Irish pubs.Many of the tunes they played came from Donegal — even Altan is the name of a mysteriouslake behind Errigal Mountain in Donegal. Some tunes band members wrote. Reels and jigspredominated with their traditional style of repetitive motifs that tend to hypnotize before they allsuddenly end. Sometimes they started slowly and then picked up steam and volume. This causedaudience members to stamp their feet and clap their hands in time. Most tunes, especially thevery quick ones, got delighted whoops and loud applause. These instrumentals included“Highland Man,” “Cliffs of Glen,” “Old Cuffe Street,” “Silver Slipper,” “The Roseville” and“Danny Meehans.”When Mhaonaigh sang, she told funny anecdotes as to where she found the song. Althougheveryone was miked, Mhaonaigh managed to alter the quality of her voice to suit the songs,which were all strophic (different lyrics, same music) and often in Gaelic. For “As I Roved Out,”her voice was a light soprano. In “A Love Song,” it was like a dramatic clarion. Her “I Wish MyLove Was a Red, Red Rose” with Sproule was a sweet ballad. Sproule also sang a few, which hewrote. They were sunny with discernible melodies filagreed with traditional ornamentation.In the second half, they opened with “Is the Big Man Within?” and “Tilly Finn’s” in whichByrne was especially hot. “Dark Haired Lass” got audience members dancing in the aisles.“Come ye by Atholl” was followed with each member taking a solo. Byrne’s and Mhaonaigh’ssolos got wild applause.The show ended with several reels in which sparks flew, followed by a fast song for an encore.