A look at upcoming Irish/Celtic music-related events in Greater Boston (and somewhat beyond)

•Jean Butler, who played a major role in the groundbreaking original production of “Riverdance” (you might’ve heard of it) will be at the Irish Cultural Centre of Greater Boston on May 1, not to dance but to talk about dance – specifically about her work with the nonprofit organization Our Steps. Read an interview with Butler here. Registration and other information available at the ICCGB website.

•In its first event of the month, the Brian O’Donovan Legacy Series at The Burren offers a reminder of its namesake’s expansive vision of Celtic music and enthusiastic embrace of imaginative styles and approaches to it, with a performance by Italian trio Ensemble Sangineto on May 1. The band is the creation of twins Adriano and Caterina Sangineto, children of harp and psaltery maker Michele Sangineto, who passed along his affinity for ancient/traditional music to them, from which they developed an interest in Irish, Scottish, and Breton/French traditions as well as that of their native country. Having joined forces with guitarist and bouzouki player Jacopo Ventura, the ensemble has broadened its collective tastes to include (among others) classical, Gregorian chant as well as pop music: One minute, it’s a rendition of Dougie MacLean’s “Ready for the Storm”; the next, an original a cappella piece in Italian; and then, perhaps a reel or two on harp, bowed psaltery and bouzouki.  

Master fiddler Frankie Gavin is becoming quite the regular visitor to Greater Boston: His May 14 concert at the Legacy Series will be his third area appearance since the fall of 2023. Gavin was a co-founder of the renowned band De Dannan, which is still going strong (their accordionist, Diarmuid Ó Meachair, just happens to be living in the area nowadays) and he has played and recorded with Stéphane Grappelli, Andy Irvine, Yehudi Menuhin, the Rolling Stones, and Elvis Costello, to name a few. He's also known for his great respect for, and interest in, the Irish/Irish-American styles of James Morrison and Michael Coleman, as well as the different routes Irish traditional music has taken down through time, notably in 1920s America. More recently, Gavin and pianist Carl Hession composed a symphonic suite in honor of Grace Kelly. 

On May 21, the duo of Gerry O’Connor and Kevin McElroy – brought together by their mutual love of fiddles and fiddle-making and with a shared wealth of mutual inspirations and musical influences – makes a return to the series. O’Connor, from a family with a long musical legacy, co-founded the well-regarded bands Skylark, Lá Lugh, and Oirialla, and has made 14 recordings while also collaborating with other leading Irish music performers including members of The Chieftains, Planxty, The Bothy Band, and other groups. In addition to “The Rose in the Gap,” O’Connor compiled and published “I Have Travelled This Country,” a collection of songs by Cathal McConnell, the much-loved traditional singer and musician from County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland.  Portland guitarist and singer McElroy – a native of Rowley, Mass. – has performed regularly over the years with such luminaries as Seamus Connolly, Brendan Tonra, and Joe Burke. McElroy, who also plays fiddle and mandolin, recorded the album “Better Late Than Never,” with pure-drop traditional songs like “Farewell Lovely Nancy,” “Reynardine,” “Banks of the Roses” and “Rambling Boys of Pleasure.” 

Tickets and information to Brian O’Donovan Legacy Series events available through The Burren website. 

•May 16 will be an all-too-rare opportunity to catch a performance by Fódhla – the trio of Medford fiddler Ellery Klein and Maine residents Nicole Rabata (flute, whistle) and Bethany Waickman (guitar) – at Arts Collaborative Medford. Klein and Rabata have spent considerable time in Ireland and developed a solid foundation in its music tradition, with a repertoire to match; Waickman is a well-regarded accompanist whose DADGAD style and sound has enlivened the New England contra dance circuit as well as numerous concert settings. As their 2015 CD “Notes from Mill Pond” demonstrates, the trio has a fine ear for arrangements to showcase their instrumental abilities, and is perfectly happy to go outside the Irish tradition – like, say, to play a Quebecois waltz or two. Tickets, details at artscollabmedford.org.

•With their brand new album in tow, Massachusetts Celtic ensemble Fellswater comes to City Winery Boston on May 31. For 17 years, the septet has presented scrupulously arranged sets of Scottish, Irish, Breton, and other Celtic-related music for instruments such as fiddle, viola, Celtic harp, cello, nyckelharpa, Scottish small pipes and border pipes, flute, acoustic bass, whistle, guitar, banjo, mandolin, and percussion. In addition to its instrumental core of Elizabeth Ketudat, Sarah MacConduibh, Dave Cabral, Kyle Forsthoff, and Andrew McIntosh, the band has a vocal component in husband-wife duo Chris and Diane Meyers. Earlier this year, Fellswater released its fourth album, “Making Waves,” which features original tunes by members Ketudat and Forsthoff as well as by, among others, Hanneke Cassel (who’ll be in concert herself this month; see below), Katie McNally, Adam Sutherland, and Michael McGoldrick. The songs come from diverse sources, including Irish and Scottish traditions (“Siúl A Rún,” “Allison Cross”), Dougle MacLean (“Caledonia”) and even avant-garde harpist/vocalist Deborah Henson-Conant (“The Nightingale”). Tickets, etc., at citywinery.com/boston/events.

•The aforementioned Hanneke Cassel is appearing May 9 at the Second Friday Concerts at First Church Belmont. A native Oregonian who has been part of the Boston music scene for nigh on three decades, Cassel has cultivated a unique style and sound blending the elegant, sometimes flamboyant grace that is the mark of classic Scottish fiddle with rhythmic briskness and bluegrass or even jazz-inspired improvisational runs, whether playing traditional tunes or the many she has composed. Cassell has been a teacher and mentor to scores of aspiring Celtic fiddlers at various music camps as well as at her alma mater Berklee College of Music, where she has served as a guest instructor in the American Roots department. She will be joined by fiddler Jenna Moynihan and guitarist Keith Murphy, who both appear on her 2023 album "Infinite Brightness." For tickets and details, see secondfridayconcerts.org.

•And speaking of Scottish music icons, fiddle-cello duo Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas are at the Shalin Liu Performance Center in Rockport on May 1. Fraser is one of the leading Scottish fiddlers of the past few decades, and Haas has been a foundational figure in the use of cello in various forms of traditional music. In their duets, the two exchange riffs, trade off melody versus rhythm, and otherwise converse in various tones of emotion and intensity, drawing on Scottish and other Celtic traditions as well as elements of Scandinavian, American, classical, jazz, and other music forms. It bears mentioning that this year is the 25th of their partnership; in 2020, they marked their 20th anniversary with the release of their sixth album, “Syzygy,” consisting of original compositions. Tickets and other information at rockportmusic.org/alasdair-fraser-natalie-haas.

•An intriguing collaboration to say the least at Harvard Square’s Club Passim: Portland, Me., resident Neil Pearlman, a familiar presence in Greater Boston’s Scottish community, teams up with Ugandan folk singer-songwriter Giovanni Kiyingi for a concert on May 4. Pearlman is known for his distinctive improvisational piano approach — which incorporates elements of jazz, classical and other genres — in accompanying Scottish and Cape Breton music, such as with long-time partner fiddler Katie McNally, his more recent duo with Shetland fiddler Kevin Henderson and in various other iterations, including The Pine Tree Flyers (he also plays accordion and mandolin). Kiyingi, who’s been living in Phoenix for the past several years, combines a mastery of various traditional African and Western instruments – from endingidi (a tube-shaped fiddle-like instrument) to kalimba to flute to guitar – with songs that draw on African folk traditions and stories: In one instance, the aura of fear and foreboding surrounding a Ugandan village called Bukunja inspired him to create a joyful song that challenged the myths and legends about Bukunja and its people. 

OK, perhaps it’s a stretch to include them in this context, but also hard to completely ignore the fact that Martin and Eliza Carthy will be doing two shows at Club Passim, on May 5 and 6. Martin, if you don’t know by now, is one of the most influential performers to come out of the 1960s British Isles folk music revival – he’s widely credited with having taught “Scarborough Fair” to Bob Dylan, which served as the basis for Dylan’s “Girl from the North Country” – with an innovative, distinctive guitar style. Over the years, as a soloist or in collaborations, he  has performed material with Irish/Celtic connections, such as Robert Dwyer Joyce’s “Wind That Shakes the Barley,” “John Barleycorn,” and “The Blacksmith,” not to mention the blazing tune sets he and fiddler Dave Swarbrick used to play (Martin also recorded a cracking rendition of “Arthur McBride” seven years before Paul Brady’s iconic version). Martin is set to release his newest album, “Transform Me Then Into a Fish,” later this month. His daughter Eliza has become a prominent artist in her own right, as a powerfully propulsive fiddler and passionate singer, and an accomplished songwriter to boot. Like her father, she has received a Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, plus scads of BBC awards and nominations (including a nomination for World Music, the first for an English traditional musician), published an autobiography and last year released her newest solo album, “No Wasted Joy.”

Salem native Molly Pinto Madigan, whose songwriting is strongly rooted in the themes, motifs, and forms of the European and American folk ballad traditions, will be at Club Passim on May 15. In 2020, Madigan – a past winner of the WUMB Songwriting Award and a Passim Iguana Music Fund grant – debuted her folk-rock opera “The Ballad of Tam Lin,” her unique retooling of the centuries-old Scottish supernatural ballad. She has just released her sixth album, “Romeo & Juliet in the City,” which examines love and loss, and points in between. 

 For tickets and details, see passim.org

•Genre-busting, Irish-world music fusion fiddler Eileen Ivers will team up with the Plymouth Philharmonic Orchestra to present “Celtic Spirit” at Plymouth Memorial Hall on May 3 and 4. Ivers, along with her band unIVERSal Roots in collaboration with “the Plymouth Phil,” will present excerpts from “Riverdance,” of which she was in the original musical cast, as well as Irish traditional music and contemporary compositions – including “Lord of the Dance” and “Inisheer.” A co-founder of Cherish the Ladies, Ivers has played with the likes of Sting, Hall and Oates, rock-poet Patti Smith, and jazz guitarist Al Di Meola, and appeared on “Gangs of New York” and other movie soundtracks.

Tickets at plymouthphil.org/plymouth-philharmonic-concert-7-2025