Eilís Kennedy and William Coulter Concert

Eilís Kennedy was raised in Baile an Mhúraigh in West Kerry to parents who passed on lifelongng and committed interest in the poetry and songs of that region. The second youngest of eight children, she has been fortunate to have had the opportunity to listen to many of the finest exponents of song in her locality. The emotion and stories associated with Gaelic singing thus informed her love of song.

​Eilís recorded her first solo CD titled Time to Sail in 2000, with guitarist William Coulter and this gained widespread critical acclaim. This was followed by another solo collection One Sweet Kiss In 2007, along with composer Shaun Davey, Rita Connolly, Seamus Begley, Jim Murray,Eoin Ó Beaglaoich & Dáithí Ó Sé ,she was part of Béal Tuinne, a 15-song cycle, based on her father Caoimhín Ó Cinnéide’s poems and set to original music by Shaun Davey. This experience was a pivotal one for Eilís, leading to many opportunities working with these world-renowned musicians and singers. The common thread was a sense of place, and pride in the undeniable magic of West Kerry. There followed a live recording of the St James’ Church original performance of the song cycle for the TV documentary produced by South Wind Blows for RTÉ. Further performances of BEAL Tuinne in The National Concert Hall, Trinity College Dublin, as well as the Centre Culturel d'Irlandais in Paris and at festivals in Ireland followed.

​Songwriting is a new departure for Éilís and her latest album, So Ends This Day, is a themed album of songs she has composed about lives involved in whaling, New Bedford whalers and their wives. Eilís made use of her Covid lockdown to finish this album, which is produced by Gerry O ’Beirne. The album received critical acclaim and was nominated for an RTE Folk Award. Eilís also received the 2021 ACLSR Award for Female Vocalist of the Year in recognition of American Celtic Listener Supported Radio for exceptional talents, Achievements of musicians in the Celtic Traditional genre. The song Petticoat Whalers, from the album So Ends This Day is a runner up in the 2021 American Songwriter International Songwriting competition. In 2020, she also released an album of unaccompanied Irish language songs learned in childhood, titled Mo Theaglach. These have a significance to her family as they would have been sung in her household as she grew up.

William Coulter is an internationally acclaimed, Grammy award winning master of the steel-string guitar. His most recent recording, The Rolling Waves, was released in December 2021 on the Gourd Music label. This solo project is a collection of original arrangements of folk and original music from the Celtic lands and beyond. Coulter has been Music Director for Tomaseen Foley’s A Celtic Christmas since 1998, and has performed with the Santa Cruz Baroque Festival, Apollo’s Fire and many other ensembles. In March of 2016 he debuted Celtic Journey, a full-length pops concert with the Omaha Symphony featuring Irish singers, dancers, musicians and story-teller. Collaborations have been a mainstay of his career including tours and recordings with Gourd Music artists Neal Hellman and Barry and Shelley Phillips; classical guitar virtuoso Benjamin Verdery, and Irish flute wizard Brian Finnegan. Tours have taken him around the states and to Ireland, Europe, Taiwan, New Zealand, Chile, and most recently Australia. Coulter teaches classical guitar at UC Santa Cruz and at many summer camps and festivals. Coulter earned degrees from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the university of hard knocks.

Doors open at 6:30pm, refreshments will be available for purchase.

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