Celtic Connections Announces 19 Days of Online Concerts

Celtic Connections Announces 19 Days of Online Concerts

Digital festival starts this Friday 15 January and features Eddi Reader, José González, Siobhan Miller, Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi, Katherine Priddy, Aidan O’Rourke, Duncan Chisholm, Kinnaris Quintet, Le Vent du Nord, Fiona Hunt, Ross Ainslie and Ali Levack.

After announcing in October that this year’s festival will be a fully digital event, Celtic Connections in Glasgow have announced the full programme for 2021. The festival will run for 19 days from Friday 15 January until Tuesday 2 February with a series of online concerts and workshops. 

This year, instead of live events, the festival has commissioned a series of concerts filmed at several of Glasgow’s iconic music venues with performances from Scottish traditional and folk musicians, including Eddi Reader (18 January), Siobhan Miller (18 January) and Aidan O’Rourke (19 January). Concerts will be available to view at  www.celticconnections.vhx.tv can be viewed for a week after the initial broadcast.

A line-up of international acts will also perform, including Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi (31 January), José González (24 January), Declan O’Rourke (25 January) and Cherish the Ladies (27 January). 

The opening concert of the festival takes place on 15 January and will feature twelve performances during its 90 minutes, with artists including the Celtic Connections 2021 Big Band, fiddle player Duncan Chisholm with Scottish Ensemble, Glasgow-based traditional five-piece Ímar, singer Fiona Hunter, folk ensemble Kinnaris Quintet, Quebec-based folk group Le Vent du Nord and more. 

The 2020 BBC Young Traditional Musician of the year Ali Levack is also on the line-up with his band Project Smok (28 January), as well as Birmingham-based folk singer Katherine Priddy (19 January), Scottish folk band Shooglenifty (16 January), traditional singer Fiona Hunt (16 January), piper Ross Ainslie (21 January), Quebec folk group De Temps Antan (29 January) and more. 

Workshops and new voices
The festival will also host a series of music workshops focusing on fiddle, guitar, bluegrass banjo, cello, ukulele, whistle, mandolin and more.

There is also a new voices series as part of the festival featuring fiddle and bass player Charlie Stewart (BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year 2017), piper and composer Steven Blake and singer-songwriter and winner of the 2017 BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award, Josie Duncan. 

Commenting on this year’s festival, Donald Shaw, Creative Producer for Celtic Connections, said:

The concept for a digital-first Celtic Connections was borne out of a desire to promote wellbeing and optimism amongst fellow musicians as much as it was about still being able to offer entertainment to our loyal Celtic Connections audiences during the dark nights of January. The resounding feeling that has come out of the recording days is a space for musicians to come back, to play again, to feel part of the community that they helped to create. The last time a lot of the contributing artists performed was at Celtic Connections 2020 and now they are back playing as part of the festival one year on after what has undoubtedly been the hardest year of their careers. 

Audiences can purchase tickets for the full festival or to individual events by visiting: https://celticconnections.com/how-to-book

Published on 13 January 2021

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