Irish band Runa comes at Skye
Nov 16, 2012 12:00 am
REGION -- New England Celtic Arts will host the award winning Irish band Runa at Skye Theatre in So. Carthage on Wednesday and at UCCPA in Unity on Thursday.
Curtain at Skye is 7 p.m. and at UCCPA at 7:30 p.m.
RUNA draws on the diverse musical backgrounds of its band members and offers a contemporary and refreshing approach to traditional and more recently composed Celtic material. Through their repertoire of both highly energetic and graceful, acoustic melodies, along with their fusion of music from Ireland, Scotland, Canada, and the United States, this vocal and instrumental ensemble gives its arrangements of traditional songs and tunes a fresh sound.
Members of RUNA have played with Solas, Riverdance, Slide, Clannad, Fiddlers’ Bid, Moya Brennan, Eileen Ivers, Hazel O’Conner, Full Frontal Folk, Keith and Kristyn Getty, Barcó, and the Guy Mendilow Band.
RUNA consists of vocalist, Shannon Lambert-Ryan of Philadelphia, Dublin-born guitarist, Fionán de Barra, Cheryl Prashker of Canada on percussion, and Tomoko Omura of Japan on the fiddle and Galway native Dave Curley with multi-instrumentals, vocals and dance.
The band won several awards at the 2010 Montgomery Buck Music Awards, including Best Entertaining Band, Best Folk Artist, Best Female Vocalist, and Best Album – “Jealousy”. Jim Allford of PA Music Scene writes, “The band is going to be reckoned with and I really feel they are Grammy bound within time.”
RUNA recently released their second album, Stretched On Your Grave, in March. Hailed by Irish Philadelphia as “an inspired album from a group that has found its voice, and its place, in the world of Irish music”, journalist Lori Lander Murphy describes it as, “a joyful gem that deserves its own place in the annals of Celtic music.”
Skye Theater is located three miles west of East Dixfield village at 2 Highland Drive off Winter Hill Road and Rt. 2 in South Carthage. UCCPA is at 42 Depot St. in Unity. Ticket price is $15 at the door. For reservations at The Empire 897-8988 or for Skye Theatre call 562-4445; or UCCPA at 948-7469. Reservations are strongly suggested at all three venues.