Cambridge nonprofit Passim recently announced the full round of this year’s recipients of the Brian O’Donovan Legacy Fund grants, which support Celtic music and dance artists. The awards go to funding live shows and tours in New England, with one grant earmarked for bringing an act to Passim’s Boston Celtic Music Festival (BCMFest). 

The fund, established by the O’Donovan family, honors the longtime host of the GBH radio show “A Celtic Sojourn” for his significant contributions to Passim and the New England Celtic music community.

Last fall, Boston-area Celtic quintet Scottish Fish received a grant and appeared at the 23rd annual BCMFest (held Jan. 15-18) as the Brian O’Donovan Legacy Artist. The band did a Q&A for BCMFest prior to the festival. 

Other recipients include:

•The Adam Hendey Band—A master of the DADGAD guitar style and accomplished singer, Hendey is a familiar figure in Greater Boston’s Celtic music scene, whether co-leading sessions at McCarthy’s, collaborating with other musicians and singers, or fronting his band – featuring Erin Shea Hogan, Elias Cardoso and Brendan Hearn – with a repertoire of tunes and songs from traditional and contemporary sources. Hendey is about to release his solo album, “Illuminate.”

•The Bow Tides—This quintet is fronted by three fiddlers who have all been members of the internationally renowned Irish-American band Gaelic Storm. But Jessie Burns, Katie Grennan and Boston-area resident Ellery Klein all have had productive, successful careers on their own, a highlight being the formation of Bow Tides in 2020 to produce online concerts for a pair of Irish festivals. Since then, they have enlisted guitarist/singer Jeff Lindblade and double bassist Eric Thorn, and released an album, “Sailing On.” Their repertoire includes traditional tunes and songs from the Irish, Scottish and Galician traditions, as well as original compositions. 

•Duncan Wickel—A multi-instrumentalist – including bouzouki, guitar, fiddle and cello – Wickel has been part of various partnerships and bands across a range of music traditions. These include his duo with Lily Henley, which delved into Ladino, Hebrew, Celtic and American folk songs – among their appearances locally was the 2022 “Christmas Celtic Sojourn” – and the band Rising Appalachia. Wickel has toured with such artists as John Doyle and Karan Casey, Molly Tuttle and The Duhks. He is in the midst of recording his first solo album.

•Jenna Moynihan and Màiri Chaimbeul—Moynihan, a fiddler from upstate New York, first met Chaimbeul, a harpist from Scotland’s Isle of Skye, when they were students at the Berklee College of Music and began a collaboration built on Scottish and other music traditions which incorporating improvisatory, explorative contemporary styles. After releasing an album, “One Two,” they went on separate paths that included solo work as well as other partnerships – Moynihan has performed with local Scottish fiddler Hanneke Cassel, while Chaimbeul joined the progressive-folk band The Aerialists. The pair is now recording a second album and plan to tour in New England later this year.

•Malvenn—This Montreal-based trio draws on Irish, Breton and Quebecois music along with their own work, influenced by their traditional and classical music backgrounds, to fashion a unique take on “balfolk”:  a genre that originated in the 1970s as a way to distinguish traditional French folk dances from other social dances, but expanded to encompass social folk dances and tunes – mainly though not exclusively French, and often with contemporary origins – from across Europe and sometimes beyond. Its members include Cécile Delage (harp), Charlotte Layec (clarinet) and McKinley James (cello), who lived in the Boston area while attending New England Conservatory and in addition to co-founding the band Night Tree was a part of the Childsplay ensemble. Malvenn is working on an album for release this year.

The recipients were announced at the BCMFest Nightcap finale concert in Somerville Theatre on Jan. 17, which included a special tribute to O’Donovan.  

SEAN SMITH

For more about the Brian O’Donovan Legacy Fund, go here.