ZoukFest Celebration
featuring Randal Bays, Eliot Grasso, Moira Smiley and Roger Landes June 13, 2009

The ZoukFest world music camp takes up residence at UNM this year! They'll provide a jam packed weekend (June 12 to 14) of classes on a wide variety of instruments and styles from around the world. Expert instruction on bodhran, bouzouki, Irish flute, fiddle, mandolin and voice are just a few examples. There are 38 workshops with a dozen master musicians. Visit the ZoukFest web site for a full list of workshops.

We've hosted a ZoukFest-related concert for the last two years, but with the conference in Albuquerque itself this year, we are able to put a number of instructors on stage for one action packed evening of virtuosic performances. Enjoy solo performances and group interaction with master fiddler Randal Bays, bodhran virtuoso Dain Forsythe, uilleann pipes/flute/tin whistle phenom Eliot Grasso, stunning singer Moira Smiley and ZoukFest founder and bouzouki/mandolin/tenor banjo wizard Roger Landes.

"Randal Bays is the genuine article," says The Rough Guide to Irish Music. Among the many Americans who play Irish fiddle, Randal Bays is one of the few to find serious acceptance and respect for his music in Ireland. His 2005 release, House to House (with Roger Landes), was selected by the Irish Times as one of the top five traditional recordings of the year, and the Cork Examiner called him "a rare beast, a master of both the fiddle and the guitar."

Baltimore native and Oregon resident Eliot Grasso hails from a long line of familial musicians. He began playing Irish traditional music on the flute at age seven, tin whistle at age eight, and uilleann pipes at age eleven, his earliest exposure including the music of The Chieftains and The Bothy Band. In January of 1995, Eliot began studying rudimentary piping technique with Paul Levin and later that year, began studying advanced piping technique with Na Píobairí Uilleann instructor, Kieran O'Hare. Since 1996, Eliot has won regional and international first, second, and third place titles at the Mid-Atlantic Fleadh Cheoil and Ireland's International Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann in the uilleann pipes and tin whistle divisions.

Composer-vocalist Moira Smiley travels the world as a soloist in Early and Traditional music and creates new work with dance, theatre and film. Moira was born in Vermont, moved to Indiana to pursue a piano performance degree at Indiana University School of Music, and finished with a degree in Early Music Vocal Performance, having studied voice with Thomas Binkley, Paul Elliott, Paul Hillier and Alan Bennett. While at IU, Moira toured with her vocal quartet, VIDA, singing a cappella folk song from Eastern Europe and various other vibrant harmony traditions, recorded three CDs of traditional and original songs, and performed in concerts throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe.

Celtic Heritage Magazine said of ZoukFest founder and director Roger Landes: "Not only is Landes helping to legitimize the instrument—he is taking it to a whole other level." Roger took up the bouzouki in 1981 and co-founded the popular Celtic band Scartaglen. His critically acclaimed CD Dragon Reels is the result of his work mastering the intricacies of Irish traditional music. The Janissary Stomp, with folk and roots musician Chipper Thompson, is a ground-breaking collection of mostly original duets for two bouzoukis. In 1998 and 1999, Roger hosted ZoukFest, the first international gatherings devoted to the Celtic bouzouki, in Missouri.

New to ZoukFest, Dain Forsythe is a rising performer among bodhran players in North America. He placed first in Bodhrán at the 2006 Southeastern Regional Irish Music Competition in Atlanta, Georgia. Dain has performed and taught bodhran throughout the South and Southeast, and since relocating to Albuquerque in 2007, he has performed throughout the state with Roger Landes. Dain currently teaches bodhran through the University of New Mexico's Continuing Education Department and at Apple Mountain Music.

Tickets are $15 advance, $20 day of show.

Tickets available on-line through Brown Paper Tickets
or by phone (24 hours): 1-800-838-3006

Official Website: http://www.ampconcerts.org