Christmas Celtic Sojourn director’s role: ‘You stay out of the way and let it happen’

By Sean Smith
December 1, 2016
Sean Smith

Seamus EganSeamus EganWhen you’re the music director for “A Christmas Celtic Sojourn,” says Seamus Egan, Christmas comes early. “Actually,” he quips, “Christmas tends to last all year.”

Egan is finishing up his first decade overseeing the musical end of things for the popular holiday-themed showcase of music, dance, songs, and stories in the Celtic tradition, which takes place for the 14th year this month with performances in Providence, New Bedford, Worcester, and Rockport, as well as its run at the Cutler Majestic Theatre in downtown Boston [the schedule is available at wgbh.org/celtic].

A virtuoso on banjo, flute, mandolin, whistle and guitar, Egan will once again be performing at the show with members of Solas, the Irish-American super-group he co-founded. Also returning to “Christmas Celtic Sojourn” are harpist Maeve Gilchrist, singer Eilís Kennedy and cellist Natalie Haas, as is dancer Cara Butler – newly minted as the show’s dance director – and her longtime partner, Nathan Pilatzke, as well as the Harney Academy of Irish Dance. New to the roster is the Acadian trio Vishten.

New BSO violist Leah Ferguson, 22, joins the Pops holiday concert series

By R.J. Donovan
December 1, 2016
R.J. Donovan

The Boston Pops annual holiday concerts rank among the city’s most enduring Christmas traditions. They began in 1971 under the baton of venerable Arthur Fiedler with a three-concert series at Symphony Hall.  Those initial performances, titled “A Pops Christmas Party,” were enthusiastically embraced by the public.

More than four decades later, the tradition continues stronger than ever. The 2016 holiday series at Symphony Hall, featuring The Tanglewood Festival Chorus, encompasses 40 evening and matinee concerts, including seven special Kids Matinee performances, through December 24. 

December's Here and There

By Bill O’Donnell
December 1, 2016
Bill O’Donnell

 Hillary’s Defeat Spawns a Thousand Conclusions – Where did it all go wrong?  And why were the polling by so-called “experts” and the similar numbers within the Clinton campaign so sure of victory on Nov.?  Why are American voters calling Donald Trump’s win “the biggest upset since the 1940s?”

FACTS, FALSEHOODS, AND AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE: Wading through the swamp of the 2016 presidential election

By Peter F. Stevens
December 1, 2016
Peter F. Stevens

“Facts are stubborn things.” In his defense of the British soldiers on trial for the infamous Boston Massacre (1770), John Adams used those words, which are often attributed to him even though they appeared long before he deployed them with telling effect. In regard to the presidential election of 2016, a slight revision is all too apt: “Facts are fleeting things.”

City hails Ray Flynn; It’s now Flynn Marine Park in South Boston

By Ed Forry
December 1, 2016

Some 400 family members, friends, and political and community leaders assembled last Saturday morning in South Boston as the city officially re-dedicated the Marine Industrial Park on the waterfront in honor of former Boston mayor and ambassador to the Vatican Raymond L. Flynn.

The 90-minut e ceremony, led by Mayor Marty Walsh, featured remarks by a number of current and former officeholders, including 1983 mayoral rival and frequent Flynn partner Mel King.  

Ireland awaits Trump moves on the corporate tax rate front

By Joe Leary
December 1, 2016
Joe Leary

Senior Trump economic adviser Stephen Moore, formerly with the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, somewhat gleefully announced on BBC radio the day after the election that Donald Trump’s new reduced tax rate would mean that many American companies now in Ireland would be leaving and returning to the USA. Moore based his statement on Trump’s claim during the campaign that he will reduce the American corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 15 percent in order to bring back jobs.

Nonsense!

Pages

Subscribe to Boston Irish RSS