Hello and Welcome to our St. Patrick's Day Celtic Sojourn....
Each March, for the past 15 years, I have produced this series of concerts, reflecting what I hope is the adventurous and welcoming spirit of A Celtic Sojourn, heard weekly on GBH.
On March 11th last year, we opened the series in Rockport and looked forward to our yearly run in Worcester, Cambridge, Beverly, and elsewhere in New England. That was essentially the night the world shut down. By the following morning, we knew the rest of our series would be cancelled.
What a year it's been since! This pandemic has sharpened our focus on what's important. For me, finding a way to invite you to this annual ritual has been a bit of an obsession. In December, we created a series of virtual events for our annual Christmas Celtic gathering and were overwhelmed by the support and positive feedback.
Our cast and crew have been hard at work since. The program we are planning on for March will bring you on a special journey around the world of Irish culture. We have again teamed up with some of the great theatres we should be playing live at this time of year. And we have a cast of musicians, singers, and dancers who will delight and inspire.
Each of our events is deliberately presented in real-time. This is to encourage and facilitate family and friends in gathering virtually in their own homes while sharing the experience. At Christmas for example, many Zoom cocktail hours were created in advance of the show. Others messaged actively during it, and many more gathered afterwards to chat about it. It felt as close to going to the theatre as many of us have experienced for over a year.
Mark Simos, a friend and himself an accomplished musician as well as Professor at Berklee, captured it best and paid us the highest compliment when he said: "This was one of the most moving performances I've seen during the pandemic. Watching Brian's all-star cast, I had the sense that I was truly seeing a different art form altogether, something forged in this crucible of the purgatory we've all gone through together - not live performance, not a 'pre-recorded' video, but a hybrid that was its own emerging form."
And that's what we are aiming for again in March. We really hope you can join us. Explore the site. Check out the cast and most importantly, make plans, secure your tickets, and join us for this Virtual St. Patrick's Day Celtic Sojourn.
Mark Simos, a friend and himself an accomplished musician as well as Professor at Berklee, captured it best and paid us the highest compliment when he said: "This was one of the most moving performances I've seen during the pandemic. Watching Brian's all-star cast, I had the sense that I was truly seeing a different art form altogether, something forged in this crucible of the purgatory we've all gone through together - not live performance, not a 'pre-recorded' video, but a hybrid that was its own emerging form."
