Folk Duo 'Simple Gifts' Plays at Second Presbyterian Church Jan. 22

Two women with ten instruments equals one good time when Simple Gifts takes the stage at the Second Presbyterian Church on January 22. This award-winning band performs on an impressive array of instruments, including two violins, mandolin, hammered dulcimer, recorders, and guitar plus some more unusual instruments like the bowed psaltery, baritone fiddle, banjolin, guitjo, and doumbek.

Simple Gifts presents a wide variety of ethnic folk music delivered with a warmth and vitality that reflect the group's obvious love of the music they play, including everything from lively Irish jigs and down-home American reels to hard-driving Klezmer freilachs, haunting Gypsy melodies, and exotic Balkan dance tunes. Throughout their performances, they put their own distinctive stamp on traditional tunes, blending styles from diverse cultures with their American roots.

Linda Littleton and Karen Hirshon have performed as Simple Gifts since 1995. The group was founded by Littleton in 1989 and has performed throughout the mid-Atlantic region, including appearances at the Smithsonian, Brooklyn Museum of Art, National Governors' Convention, Longwood Gardens, National Theater, Whitaker Center, Hershey Theatre, Philadelphia Folk Festival, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Ontario Center for Performing Arts, and dozens of colleges and universities throughout the region. Simple Gifts has opened for Natalie MacMaster, Tom Paxton, John McCutcheon, Robin and Linda Williams, Jay Unger and Molly Mason, and Boys of the Lough.
This project is partially supported by a grant from Pennsylvania Performing Arts on Tour, a program developed and funded by The Heinz Endowments; the William Penn Foundation; the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency; and The Pew Charitable Trusts; and administered by Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation.

Join in the music on Friday, Janary 22, 7:30pm at the Second Presbyterian Church, 6 West 96th Street, NYC 10025 (at Central Park West). General Admission is $20. Members of the Folk Music Society, $10, children, and full-time students under 22 are free. Tickets are available at the door or online at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/92742; Information: www.folkmusicny.org; or 718-672-6399.

The Folk Music Society of New York, Inc. / New York Pinewoods Folk Music Club, an all volunteer organization, tries to maximize participation in traditional music by running events that are so much fun that no one can resist joining in. For more information on the web, go to www.folkmusicny.org