Acadia Trad School 2015 Music Festival
at The College of the Atlantic
Gates Community Center.
and Acadia Halls on MDI, All tickets general admission.

Acadia Halls performances are listed here. Tickets for all shows to go on sale April 1st.

Sound is provided by Sound of Perfection. Contact Jessie Mae MacDougall ([email protected]) for bookings.

Refreshments, coffee, and tea sold at each show at Gates Community Center.

Directions

Monday, June 29th, 7:00PM, tickets $22 in advance, $25 at the door.

At Gates Community Center, COA: From Ireland to Cape Breton

An evening of music from two islands deeply rooted in Celtic music traditions. John Doyle, Nuala Kennedy, and Eamon O'Leary (The Alt), Kimberley Fraser, Matt Heaton, and Nicole Rabata.


This evenings performance brings some of the world's greatest Celtic music legends to our stage in Bar Harbor. Kimberley Fraser is one of the most sought after musicians in Cape Breton today. She has been playing music and dancing since childhood and is now a graduate of the Berklee School of Music in Boston where she studied and performed with Darol Anger, among many others. She now tours the world performing her distinctive blend of traditional and modern style music. In 2013, Kimberley was selected to as an artist in residence at the Celtic Colours Music Festival, The Alt is a new traditional Irish music trio, comprised of Irish guitar wizard John Doyle, with floutist,Nuala Kennedy, and Eamon O'Leary
on bouzouki. All musicians in this trio are also great singers and story tellers. They blend great instrumental music with three-part harmonies in traditional Irish songs

This evening's concert is at COA in Bar Harbor, and is a partner event with New England Celtic Arts .


Acadia Halls: Monday, June 29th, 4:00 PM, $8, at St. John Church in Southwest Harbor Maine

A benefit performance of the West Side Food Pantry

Cynthia MacLeod, Ward MacDonald, Chris Gray

This afternoon's Acadia Halls performance will kick off the week's Acadia Halls Series. This dynamic trio of recording artists all have roots in Scottish music with a touch of the Irish and Canadian Maritime styles to keep it lively. The audience will be treated to fiddles, bag pipes, whistles, and more. Cynthia MacLeod and Ward MacDonald both hail from Prince Edward Island, but more often than not, can be found performing around the US and Europe. Chris Gray is and instructor with Acadia Trad School and lives on Mount Desert Island.


Tuesday, June 30th, 7:00PM, tickets $22 in advance, $25 at the door.

At Gates Community Center, COA: Appalachian Old-Time Music Night

This evening will bring some of the best performers in the Appalachian-Old time traditons with a mix of Irish and other Celtic styles. Performing are: Bruce Molsky, Pete Sutherland, and Velocipede


The music of Appalachia is as haunting and beautiful as the mist-covered mountains themselves. The region is rich with songs and stories of early American life. This evening will feature some of America's best in the Appalachian Old-Time music traditions. Bruce Molsky will be performing songs and tunes on the fiddle, banjo, and guitar. Bruce is considered by many as America's leading musician and historian of Old-Time music. Pete Sutherland will bring his warm Old-Timey sound to the Acadia Trad School festival stage-- singing and playing fiddle, guitar and banjo. As Pete puts it, when he heard Old-Time music he took his direction from Huck Finn and "lit out for the territories!" He has been playing and performing Old-Time music ever since. Maine's own Velocipede has been wowing audiences with traditional music. This duo has recently taken to the road with a full schedule performing Old-Time, New England, and Irish music. Velocipede has been featured at many Acadia Trad School peformances in the past, and we never seem to get enough! Expect to see some of the best Old-Time music America has to offer this evening.

This evening's concert is at COA in Bar Harbor, and is a partner event with the 2015 Maine Celtic Celebration in Belfast Maine.

Acadia Halls: Tuesday, June 30th, 4:00 PM, $8, at MDI Historical Society, Sound, Maine

Danielle Paus

Danielle has appeared on stages throughout the United States and abroad. She is currently celebrating the release of her album “Siren Song” in which she explores the traditional sounds of the celtic harp in modern and dynamic arrangements. In this afternoon's performance you will be treated to some of the beautifully haunting sounds of the Celtic Harp. Expect to hear traditional and new sounds as Danielle takes you on a journey through the Celtic heartlands.


Wednesday, July 1st, 7:00PM, tickets $22 in advance, $25 at the door.

At Gates Community Center, COA: Irish Meets Cajun Music Night

Irish music from the emerald island and Louisiana's Cajun music blend for a perfect evening celebrating the Celtic background of both music styles. Liz Carroll, Karen Tweed, David Greely, The Green Mountain Playboys



The music of the Irish has been an important part of Irish and American culture for hundreds of years. Recently, this music has been taking the world by storm. This evening's concert will bring two of today's legends of Irish music to the Acadia Trad School festival stage, Liz Carroll and Karen Tweed. Cajun music has its roots in Celtic music. This music from Louisiana evolved from the Acadian music, a strong Celtic music from the French settlers of Nova Scotia, PEI, New Brunswick and the St John River Valley in Maine. This evenings Cajun music performance features four-time Grammy nominated fiddler, David Greely from Lafayette Louisiana. The Green Mountain Playboys from Vermont are a hot New England Cajun band featuring Acadia Trad School faculty memeber, Katie Trautz (also the director of Summit School of Traditional Music and Culture in Montpelier Vermont).

This evening's concert is at COA in Bar Harbor, and is a partner event with The Saltwater Festvial .

Acadia Halls: Wednesday, July 1st, 4:00 PM, $8, The Hall at Otter Creek (the old Otter Creek Church)

The Fiddling Thomsons, Gus LaCasse

This performance of the Acadia Halls series highlights what traditional music is all about. Traditional music is passed from generation to generation. In this performance father and son duo, "The Fiddling Thomsons" will bring you a blend of Celtic styles form Irish to Old-Time. Together, they play twin fiddles, wooden spoons, zydeco rubboard, jaw harp, cajon boxdrum, rhythm bones, mandolin, banjo, accordion, flute, foot percussion, piano, cajuntriangle, pennywhistle, and other folk instruments.

Gus LaCasse, is a classically trained violinist and inspired fiddler. He plays traditional music with a real love for the Cape Breton, Acadian and Quebecoise genres. He was the 2014 student in residence at The Acadia School of Traditional Music and Arts. As part of the residency, Gus performed in the Acadian music duo Août Gris, appearing in a Canadian international television broadcast from the Congrès Mondial Acadian 2014. He will be a featured performer at the le Hermione Voyage 2015 events this summer. Gus is currently working on his second CD, a focus on Gypsy Jazz. When Gus picks up the fiddle and bow, you know you are in for a great musical experience.



Thursday, July 2nd, 7:00PM, tickets $22 in advance, $25 at the door.

At Gates Community Center, COA: Vishtèn


For the past decade Acadian powerhouse trio Vishtèn has acted as Francophone musical ambassadors throughout the world. The Canadian trio has dazzled audiences with their fiery blend of traditional French songs and original instrumentals that fuse Celtic and Acadian genres with a modern sensibility of rock influence.

Hailing from Prince Edward Island’s Evangeline area and from the most remote reaches of Quebec - the windswept Magdalen Islands - twin sisters Emmanuelle and Pastelle LeBlanc join musical forces with Pascal Miousse to form a sophisticated sonic signature combing tight sibling harmonies, layered foot percussion, virtuoso acoustic and electric instrumentation. Together they create an expansive sound that would be difficult to reproduce, in sheer complexity, by a quintet. Their trademark blend of fiddle, guitar, accordion, harmonium, whistles, piano, bodhrán, jaw harp, moog, electric guitar and percussive dance make for a unique tour de force of traditional and contemporary sounds.

After touring extensively on three continents, the name Vishtèn is now synonymous with Acadian music worldwide. In addition to releasing four albums and performing at thousands of international festivals - from the Vancouver Olympics to France's Interceltique de Lorient - their music has been showcased on American television (ESPN) and the Japanese film, Finding Anne.

This evening's concert is at COA in Bar Harbor, and is a partner event with the PEI Fiddle Camp in Charlottetown PEI, Canada.


Acadia Halls: Thursday, July 2nd, 4:00 PM, $8, at Northeast Harbor Library

The Green Mountain Playboys, Ken Karpowicz

The Green Mountain Playtboys are a hot Cajun band warming up the Norhteast with the music from Louisiana! Alec Ellsworth, Katie Trautz, Noah Hahn, Lee Blackwell, and Jay Eki, got their start after singer and fiddler Katie Trautz and guitarist Jay Ekis made a pilgrimage to the South Louisiana Blackpot Festival & Cookoff last October. They brought back some Cajun tunes and set out to bring the Cajun sounds to Vermont!

Ken Karpowicz, Quebecois-style accordion, has had a diverse performing history: a member of the Galicia Polish Song & Dance Group of Detroit and a performer and actor and composer with The Protean Theatre of Hartford, CT. He currently accompanies fiddler, Daniel Boucher. Ken loves French Quebecois style and his music melds nicely with the French Cajun music of this afternoon's show.



Friday, July 3rd, 6:30PM, tickets $5 adults, kids 16 and under free.

Student concert night at Gates Community Center.



Acadia Trad School students will have the opportunity to perform on a big stage with a great sound system and an appreciative audience. This evening, groups of students who have studied with the masters will perform short sets. Expect a fun filled evening of great music, a few unpolished sets, but all fun... this is really what traditional music is all about!

This evening's concert is at COA in Bar Harbor, and is a partner event with the Summit School of Traditional Music & Culture in Montpelier, Vermont.


Acadia Halls: Friday, July 3rd, 4:00 PM, $5, at Jessup Library

Cynthia MacLeod, Ward MacDonald, Chris Gray

Bookends of our festival, the grand finale show with the trio that openned this year's Acadia Halls Series. This dynamic trio of recording artists all have roots in Scottish music with a touch of the Irish and Canadian Maritime styles to keep it lively. The audience will be treated to fiddles, bag pipes, whistles, and more. Cynthia MacLeod and Ward MacDonald both hail from Prince Edward Island, but more often than not, can be found performing around the US and Europe. Chris Gray is and instructor with Acadia Trad School and lives on Mount Desert Island.