Irish Arts Center Presents Eclectic, Intimate Concerts This Season

Irish Arts Center (IAC) presents an eclectic live musical lineup for its Spring 2019 season. From February through May, veteran talents and unmissable breakout voices working across the spectrum of tradition and contemporaneity will captivate IAC audiences. The season exemplifies IAC's unwavering devotion to offering a nurturing cultural home to artists-fueling thrilling collaborations and providing them with an intimate space in which to lay bare the depths of their work.

IAC will brim with soul-stirring music-encapsulating the vast range of styles inherent to IAC's panoramic vision of Irish and Irish American culture-and the result of their intersections with cultures around the world. On February 2, multi-instrumentalist Inni-K will give two different performances: in the afternoon, a family concert celebrating the ancient Celtic festival Imbolc (with stories told visually by multimedia artist Gregory Corbino), and in the evening, a concert showcasing music from her debut album, The King Has Two Horse's Ears, "a vivid fusion of genre blending rhythms and sounds...born out of a rural, tactile take on the indie-folk genre" (The Last Mixed Tape), and her upcoming sophomore release. Acclaimed Singer-Songwriter and RTE Radio One Award Winner Declan O'Rourke will return to IAC February 7-10 for performances of Chronicles of the Great Irish Famine-an empathic portrait of the forgotten, and a vivid musical evocation of Ireland through the incomprehensible hardship of the Great Famine. Building on the success of IAC's 2017 multi-city presentation of An Evening with Cassandra Wilson and Liam Ó Maonlaí, IAC will bring this engagement to five other locations throughout the U.S., further expanding its scope to bring exemplary Irish work beyond New York to communities across the country.

From February 27-28, IAC will give its platform to the astonishing talent of 24-year-old singer-songwriter and "classic storyteller" (The Irish Times) David Keenan, who will launch his debut album, Evidence of Living, at the Center. From May 9-10, Irish singer, actor, and songwriter Lisa Lambe (of Celtic Women) will make an exhilarating return to IAC for performances of work from her second solo album, out in May. Alt-pop artist Rachael Sage, acclaimed for her "rich vocals, sparkling piano and yearning poetry" (Time Out New York), will perform songs from her upcoming acoustic album, PseudoMyopia (May 23) as part of IAC's SongLives series showcasing Ireland and North America's most exciting contemporary singer-songwriters.

Genre-bending "ArtSoul" musician Loah, internationally celebrated raga and jazz piano prodigy Utsav Lal, and acclaimed solo artist, composer and The Frames founding member Colm Mac Con Iomaire will come together in residence at IAC, May 27-June 1. Their collaboration (which began in Fall 2018 with transcendent set at IAC's A Spirit of Ireland Groundbreaking Gala) will culminate in three performances, May 30-June 1.

The close relationships IAC cultivates with artists have catalyzed beloved musical series and annual concerts, fostering a singular sense of community through impeccable musicianship. Christine Tobin and Phil Robson's jazz series Tobin's Run on 51 returns April 18, paying homage to the legendary career and work of 10-time Grammy-winning saxophonist and composer Wayne Shorter. The 7th Annual Celtic Appalachian Celebration (presented in partnership with Carnegie Hall, March 15) hosted by renowned musician-folklorist Mick Moloney, will this year feature performances by Moloney, fiddler Athena Tergis, their supergroup Green Fields of America, and string band New Ballards Branch Bogtrotters, with 2018 NEA National Heritage fellow Eddie Bond, Jerron "Blind Boy" Paxton, and special guests.

For more music, performance, literary, and educational programing for the Spring 2019 Season, visit irishartscenter.org