altan“Altan continues to be one of the Celtic world’s great treasures, gifted with a front line that is

sheer powerhouse.” LA TIMES

“More than any Irish group, this Donegal quintet is seen as keeper of the traditional flame.”THE BOSTON GLOBE

WWW.IMNWORLD.COM/ALTANWWW.ALTAN.IE

*25th Anniversary

All Bookings and Enquiries: MPI - Martin Nolan & Associates, Booking Agency & Entertainment Consultants tel +353 16684017 email info@mpibands.com web www.mpibands.com The Gasworks, 10

Upper Grand Canal Street, Dublin 2, Ireland

Over those 25 years they have established themselves as one of the most important live acts to play traditional Irish music in Ireland and on the World stage. The Boston Globe has described them as “The hottest group in the Celtic realm!” Altan have toured all over the USA and Europe. They also enjoy popularity in Japan where they frequently tour and have hosted Altan festivals in the middle of Tokyo to thousands of enthusiastic fans.

Founding members, the late Frankie Kennedy and his partner Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh, lead singer and fiddler with the band, began their musical career whilst teaching in a school in Malahide in North County Dublin, playing music for fun and enjoyment not knowing that it would end up as their main way of life and bring them all over the world! Frankie and Mairead started out by playing with and meeting older musicians from the Donegal tradition, like John Doherty, Con Cassidy, James Byrne, Dinny McLaughlin,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, their friendship. The pair learned their music, tried to emulate their style and listened to their general philosophy of life, which, in retrospect was just as important as the music. Later it would be Francie who translated the beautiful Gaelic songs into English on all of the Altan recordings to date. Francie was also responsible for the translations of ‘Barbara Allen’ and ‘In the Sweet Bye and Bye’ on two projects with the legendary Dolly Parton which Altan were involved with. Frankie and Mairead made their first forays into live shows in the USA in 1985, releasing two albums together as a duo; 1983’s “Ceol Aduaidh” (Music of the North) and the self-titled “Altan” in 1987.

Altan as a band began as a quartet with Frankie on flute, Mairéad on fiddle and songs, joined by Ciaran Curran on bouzouki and Mark Kelly and Dáithí Sproule sharing the role of guitar player, Mark touring with the band in Europe and Dáithí in the States. Later Paul O’Shaughnessy on fiddle joined, augmenting and driving the sound of the band to new levels on Green Linnet recordings “Horse with a Heart” (1989), “The Red Crow” (1990), “Harvest Storm” (1991) and “Island Angel” (1993). “The Red Crow” became the first of three Altan albums to win the prestigious “Celtic/British Isles Album of the Year” award from the National Association of Independent Record Distributors and Manufacturers (NAIRD).

Ciaran Tourish on fiddle and whistle joined the band for the “Harvest Storm“ recording, adding his innovative harmonies and counter melodies. The context of having three fiddles in the band helped drive Altan to newer heights and introduced the Donegal fiddle tunes, which the band became reknowned for, to a much wider 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 in contemporary folk circles.” Altan are no stranger to the Billboard world music charts, “Island Angel” was the fourth-best-selling

Download Altan Biography

Altan - 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 2006

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Frankie Kennedy and Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh - Ceol Aduaidh

(1983)

Frankie Kennedy and Mairéad Ní

album in 1994.

In the meantime Frankie Kennedy was diagnosed with cancer, but continued to steer the band to international recognition and negotiating with Virgin Records UK, to sign the band before his death in September 1994. This was a significant signing, as up until this traditional music was not on any major label. Altan recorded three albums for Virgin records; “Blackwater” (1996), “Runaway Sunday” (1997) and “The Blue Idol” (2002). This merger with a major record label helped Altan bring their music, song and culture to a wider audience worldwide and paved the way for up and coming younger bands to tour extensively all over the world - crucially the band made no musical compromise to the traditional music they played and recorded.

Altan have proven to be important ambassadors of the music and culture of Ireland, so much so that they were invited to accompany the Irish President, Mary McAleese on several State visits, visiting Greece, Korea and Japan. Altan were asked to play at the White House twice by US President Bill Clinton, and played again for him when he visited Ireland. In 2006, the Irish government honoured the band by putting them on an official Irish postage stamp, one of the highest honours bestowed upon any living artist in Ireland (the only others honoured in this set of four stamps were The Chieftains, The Dubliners and Makem and Clancy). Altan have been invited to play by Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the US House of Representatives in 2007, and were granted the celebrated “Arkansas Traveller” award from state governor Mike Huckabee. “Tommy Bhetty’s Waltz” from the Red Crow album was featured in the oscar-winning film Good Will Hunting starring Robin Williams in 1997.

Altan have played their music in some of the most prestigious venues in the world; The Sydney Opera House, The Hollywood Bowl, The Royal Albert Hall, The Alte Opera Frankfurt, The Greek Theatre Los Angeles and many, many more. They have played music and recorded with The Chieftains, Dolly Parton Bonnie Raitt, Alison Krauss, Ricky Skaggs to name but a few. In 2003 they won the award for Best Group at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. In 2005, they recorded their latest studio album “Local Ground” and like every other Altan offering it was met with positive and enthusiastic reviews. The band have gained gold and platinum status in Ireland with their record sales and have won numerous awards in the music business as one of the most popular bands playing traditional 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 with their music using orchestral arrangements of their most popular pieces. The arrangements have been scored by the highly respected arranger, Fiachra Trench and have been performed with the Ulster Orchestra, The RTÉ Concert Orchestra and with the Royal Scottish Opera Orchestra. Altan hope to record an orchestral album soon and they are also in pre-production on another studio album which should be released by the end of 2009.

2006 - Altan was honoured by the Irish goverment with this postage stamp, along with The Chieftains, The Dubliners and Makem & Clancy; the only four acts included in this series

Altan have released several compilations of their most popular work over the years including "The First Ten Years" (1995) and "The Best of Altan - The Songs" (2003)

Blackwater (1996)

Runaway Sunday (1997)

Another Sky (2000)

The Blue Idol (2002)

Mairead ni Mhaonaigh is widely considered one of Ireland's finest vocalists.

MPI - Martin Nolan & Associates Booking Agency & Entertainment Consultants The Gasworks, 10 Upper Grand Canal Street, Dublin 2, Ireland tel - + 353 1 6684017 email info@mpibands.com web www.mpibands.com

Local Ground (2005)

Ireland’s Gift to the World: The Celtic Masters of Altan Celebrate a Quarter Century of Tradition and Innovation

The 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 tunes inspired by forest birds. These moments and milestones capture the quarter century-long journey of Altan, one of Ireland‟s most striking and reputable groups. Leaping like their homeland from earthy and moving tradition to world-wide notoriety, the acclaimed sextet celebrates a quarter century with Altan: 25th Anniversary Celebration (Compass Records), a new recording of lush, sensitive orchestrations by renowned Irish composer Fiachra Trench performed by the RTE Concert Orchestra, as well as a spring tour of North America. It all started when singer and fiddler Mairéad Ni Mhaonaigh was still in the cradle in her strongly traditional native region of Donegal, listening and trying desperately to sing to the songs her parents used to soothe her. Her family‟s home was a hub for poets, musicians, and writers who would share their work into the wee hours. “People would come and stay at our house and tell stories and play songs,” Ni Mhaonaigh recalls fondly. “Sometimes it would end up like a party, with people playing outside the house until late at night. We were in the country, though, so we weren‟t bothering anybody.” 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 house where they lived. So there was a lot more involved than just learning tunes; we learned the social history, too.” Ni Mhaonaigh remembers one particularly brilliant and otherworldly local composer: “There was the man who was said to be the best fiddle player around. He would go to the forest and listen to the blackbirds and tape their sounds. Maybe because he was so good, he wasn‟t a part of the normal society. 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 other world being very close.” The work of traditional musicians and this sense of history, mystery, and place—the group is named for a deep lake in Donegal—Altan carried with them into smoky Dublin and Belfast clubs to the Sydney Opera House, Royal Albert Hall, and the Hollywood Bowl. Over the course of two and a half decades, the music project Ni Mhaonaigh and her late husband and longtime musical partner Frankie Kennedy began for the sheer love it grew into an ensemble that crystallizes the beauty and power of Irish tradition. This beauty and power impressed Irish president Mary McAleese, who took the band with her on state visits, and President Bill Clinton, among many other of the world‟s movers and shakers. It turned staid Japanese folk fans into frenzied dancers and mad collectors of bootlegs and rare vinyl that Ni Mhaonaigh and Kennedy barely remembered recording. It wowed American country idols like Ricky Scaggs and Dolly Parton, whose producer approached Altan with a collaboration idea while they were passing through Nashville. “We thought some of our friends were having one over on us. We took the whole thing very lightly until he got halfway through his 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: 25th Anniversary Celebration (Compass Records), in a fitting tribute to the band‟s methodical research, stunning musicianship, 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 local singer learned phonetically from a Scottish lighthouse keeper on Arranmore Island, off of Ireland‟s northwest coast. Or “Donal agus Morag” from Rathlin Island, a rollicking account of the humorous merrymaking at a Scottish-Irish wedding, with several additional verses penned by Ni Mhaonaigh‟s father and first teacher, Francie. Francie and other musicians dear to Altan were the source of songs like “Cití na gCumann,” a song of unrequited love Ni Mhaonaigh learned from her father. Or “Is the Big Man Within?,” a tune the group got from a County Clare native living in Florida that showcases the changing time signature of a double or slip jig: “it changes abruptly in the middle. The women danced the softer one, and the men would dance the harder one,” Ni Mhaonaigh explains. Yet Altan‟s innate creativity goes beyond its impeccable treatment of traditional tunes, and can be felt in the band‟s originals—songs like “The Roseville,” recalling guitarist Daíthí Sproule‟s time in the Twin Cities, 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 the RTE Concert Orchestra. Though Altan had worked with a string quartet on past projects, this was the first 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, a guitar would. We asked Fiachra to expand the quartet arrangements he‟d done for us into orchestral arrangements, 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 and RTE felt they had to record the seamless yet intriguing blend, and the innovative results honor both Altan‟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 have swept across Ireland as it turned from European backwater into a Celtic Tiger roaring with newfound prosperity 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 the time, but perhaps money won‟t do us a lot of good in the long run,” Ni Mhaonaigh muses. “Now with the 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.”

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Album review: Altan's '25th Anniversary Celebration'

By: Geoffrey Himes

Friday, March 12, 2010

ALTAN WITH THE R.T.E. CONCERT ORCHESTRA

"25th Anniversary Celebration"

Pairing a folk string band with a classical orchestra is

often a bad idea: The cohesiveness of the large ensemble can

clash with the assertiveness of the small. But when the

R.T.E Concert Orchestra, Ireland's public-radio house

orchestra, backs that country's great folk band Altan on

"25th Anniversary Celebration," they blend unexpectedly

well. That's because precision harmonies are essential to Altan's music, and the orchestra

expands that signature sound without distorting it.

The group, which has worked with a classical string quartet, asked Irish composer Fiachra

Trench to flesh out his chamber-music arrangements for a full orchestra. He does so quite

tastefully, always allowing the folk quintet to own the foreground at the beginning of each song

and bringing up the strings and woodwinds later to broaden the band's musical ideas. The nine

songs and six instrumental tracks -- two-thirds traditional and all previously recorded -- provide a

sumptuous tour of the band's quarter-century history.

It helps that Altan's leader, Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh, is the Alison Krauss of Ireland -- a talented

fiddler and once-in-a-generation singer. When Ni Mhaonaigh warbles the slow air "I Wish My

Love Was a Red Red Rose," her soprano mirrors the lushness of the orchestra behind her and the

yearning desire of the song's lover.

Review: Altan has crowd stomping, clapping Saturday, March 13, 2010

By Geraldine Freedman

TROY — The celebrated Irish traditional band Altan played Friday night at the Troy Savings

Bank Music Hall in a pre-St. Patrick’s Day concert that thrilled a large crowd filled with a

devoted following. The concert, which was part of an almost four-week U.S. tour, marked the

band’s 25th anniversary.

Fiddler/vocalist and co-founder Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh, fiddler Ciaran Tourish, bouzouki player

Ciaran Curran, accordionist Dermot Byrne and guitarist/vocalist Daithi Sproule, who is the only

band member who lives in America, have accumulated high honors over the years ranging from

having an official Irish postage stamp and making very successful world tours to playing for

presidents 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 levels

that never slackened. The band’s high level of technical expertise and the players’ delightfully

thick 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 mysterious

lake behind Errigal Mountain in Donegal. Some tunes band members wrote. Reels and jigs

predominated with their traditional style of repetitive motifs that tend to hypnotize before they all

suddenly end. Sometimes they started slowly and then picked up steam and volume. This caused

audience members to stamp their feet and clap their hands in time. Most tunes, especially the

very 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. Although

everyone 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 My

Love Was a Red, Red Rose” with Sproule was a sweet ballad. Sproule also sang a few, which he

wrote. 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 which

Byrne 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’s

solos got wild applause.

The show ended with several reels in which sparks flew, followed by a fast song for an encore.