With participants from France, Germany, Russia, Japan, the USA and Ireland, Cairde na Cruite’s harp festival, An Chúirt Chruitireachta, has a strong international aspect. Now in its twenty-seventh year, and again centred in An Grianán, Termonfeckin, Co. Louth, the festival has a dual nature, combining the tuition programme for harpers themselves with a public performance element through evening concerts, afternoon ‘Focus on Youth’ concerts, and various sessions.

Tutors this year include Cormac De Barra, Máire Ní Chathasaigh,  Anne-Marie O’Farrell,  Kim Fleming, Aisling Ennis, Oisín Morrison, Kathleen Loughnane and Dearbhail Finnegan. West Kerry sean-nós singer, Seosaimhín Ní Bheaglaoich will be singer-in-residence for the duration of the festival, from Sunday 1 July to Friday 6 July 2012.

Festival Director Áine Ní Dhubhghaill explains how the evening concert series provides the public with an opportunity to witness the ‘cross cutting relationships between the Irish harp, its positioning within Irish traditional music and its place within the wider tradition of harping in Ireland and Scotland.’

The following series of evening concerts will take place at 8pm each evening (with the exception of the Friday) in An Grianán, with tickets costing €15 (concessions €12).

Sunday 1 July Scottish duo Catriona McKay on harp and Chris Stout on fiddle
Monday 2 July Harper-composer Michael Rooney and June McCormack on flute
Tuesday 3 July Wire-strung harper Paul Dooley; Laoise Kelly on harp and Michelle O Brien on fiddle; and Gerry Cullen of the Voice Squad
Wednesday 4 July Cormac, Éamonn and Fionán De Barra of Barco and harper, Anne-Marie O’Farrell with special guest Moya Brennan
Thursday 5 July Harper Máire Ní Chathasaigh, Chris Newman on guitar, and Gerry O’Connor on fiddle

An exhibition of Irish and pedal harps mounted by a number of premier Irish and international harp makers will be open to the public from 2pm on Sunday 1 July at An Grianán.

Reservations: info [at] cairdenacruite.com or 087 2629136

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