Treat for trad fans in Keel

Leading Scottish piper and singer Allan MacDonald will perform with acclaimed traditional harpist Laoise Kelly from Westport in The Beehive, Keel, Achill, this Sunday, August 30, at 7pm.
A leading light in the Gaelic musical scene, Allan MacDonald is in demand internationally as a composer, musical director, piper, singer, workshop leader and lecturer on Gaelic music. One of his myriad gifts is to make pibroch – a music genre associated with the Scottish Highlands – accessible and lovable. His work as a scholar-performer reuniting 17th-century piping with its Gaelic roots is influencing a whole generation of pipers.
MacDonald has performed at every major Celtic and piping festival on the planet. He lectures on the Scottish Music course at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, and he has had numerous commissions to compose for BBC television.
In 1999 and 2004, MacDonald directed two pioneering series for the Edinburgh International Festival, presenting every aspect of the piping tradition in 13 concerts, linking music with Scottish history and culture. In 2005, he co-directed an award-winning six-part television series screened on RTÉ, BBC3 and ITV—‘The Highland Sessions’—addressing the common language and musical traditions of Scotland and Ireland.
Allan won the highest award in piping, the Clasp at the Northern Meeting, two years running (1989 and 1990). He then followed his heart and developed a style of playing more in tune with the Gaelic culture of 1550-1750. His approach is infused with an insider’s ear for the fragile traces of historical continuity that survive within Gaelic-speaking communities.
Westport’s own Laoise Kelly has had three critically acclaimed solo albums ‘Just Harp’ (1999), ‘Ceis’ (2010), and ‘FΡilte Uí Cheallaigh’ (2015), as well as ‘The Wishing Well’ (2010), a live duo album with fiddle player Michelle O’Brien. Laoise was a founding member of traditional group ‘Bumblebees’ with whom she recorded two albums (1997, 1999) and toured extensively internationally.
Laoise has also a string of credits to her name, winning several All-Ireland Harp competitions as well as the Waterford Crystal harp at the Belfast Bicentennial Harp Festival.
She has featured on numerous TV and radio programs both in Ireland and internationally, and tutors regularly at University of Limerick, Dundalk IT, DIT Conservatory of Music & Drama, UCC, and at the University of Ulster, Derry.
Laoise and Allan’s performance in Achill on Sunday will offer listeners the chance to hear two accomplished musicians play in an intimate atmosphere. A real treat for fans of traditional music playing.