Following the astounding 25-year-long success of Tomáseen Foley's A Celtic Christmas, he now introduces his new show, Celtic Knots: An Irish Love Story.
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Of all the world’s shimmering love stories, few have the transcendent quality of the love between Irish poet/Nobel laureate W. B. Yeats, and the beautiful English aristocrat who was to become a militant Irish nationalist, suffragette, feminist and prisoner, Maud Gonne.
The first time he saw her he said she was “luminous as apple blossoms through which the light shines”. The poems he wrote to her and about her will stand as long as the English language stands. With their latest stage show and accompanying CD, Celtic Knots: An Irish Love Story, renowned native Irish writer and storyteller, Tomáseen Foley; traditional Irish musician, Brian Bigley, and Grammy Award-winning Celtic guitarist, William Coulter, like tapestry, they weave this radiant love story around the immortal poems of W.B. Yeats. |
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AN IRISH LOVE STORY written and narrated by Tomáseen Foley
POEMS by W.B. Yeats, recited by Tomáseen Foley
UILLEANN PIPES, FLUTE and WHISTLE: Brian Bigley
GUITAR: William Coulter
POEMS by W.B. Yeats, recited by Tomáseen Foley
UILLEANN PIPES, FLUTE and WHISTLE: Brian Bigley
GUITAR: William Coulter
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“As I thought of these things, I drew aside the curtains and looked out into the darkness, and it seemed to my troubled fancy that all those little points of light filling the sky were the furnaces of innumerable divine alchemists, who labour continually, turning lead into gold, weariness into ecstasy, bodies into souls, the darkness into God; and at their perfect labour my mortality grew heavy, and I cried out, as so many dreamers and men of letters in our age have cried, for the birth of that elaborate spiritual beauty which could alone uplift souls weighted with so many dreams.”
― W.B. Yeats
WATCH OUR PAST LIVE SHOWS
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CELTIC KNOTS: AN IRISH LOVE STORY CD
is available for purchase, download or streaming on our CDs page.
is available for purchase, download or streaming on our CDs page.
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ACCOLADES
“What a terrific program! The audience was completely charmed and captivated… wonderful storytelling… the best I have ever heard.”
THE SOCIETY FOR THE FOUR ARTS, PALM BEACH, FL
Great storytelling swept up more than 1,000 listeners Tuesday night at the Weidner Center. Tomáseen Foleyʹs mastery of word and image was supplemented by four versatile performers adding Irish music, dance and song. Gifted performers provided a sampler of Irish style music and dance. Brian Bigley doubled, tripled and quadrupled on instruments (Uilleann pipes, whistles, flutes, a fiddle, etc.) and in styles of dance. Whether in soft shoes or hard soles (all the better for loud, fast clackety‐clack), (Bigley was) nimble and swift.
WARREN GERDS, GREEN BAY PRESS GAZETTE (Concert rating: 4 out of 4 stars)
“Move over, Garrison Keillor. As a presenter of the performing arts who’s always looking for a sure bet, I assure Tomáseen delivers. He deserves a world stage.”
CRATERIAN GINGER ROGERS THEATER, MEDFORD, OR
“A good storyteller . . . can carry (his) audience to another time and place. It’s an art and a gift—and Tomáseen Foley has it in spades. Grammy Award‐winning guitarist
William Coulter provided sublime background . . . Dancer Bigley… showed his superb talents as world‐class Irish step dancers, moving their feet sometimes faster than the eye could follow.
THE SANTA BARBARA INDEPENDENT
“In the tradition of great Irish storytellers…Tomáseen Foley is a master of the Irish narrative and a keeper of the flame for a priceless piece of Irish culture.”
TOM HORAN, REGO IRISH RECORDS
“Tomáseen Foley brings to his audience a mastery of the oral tradition that has marked the Irish spirit for generations.”
ROBERT CASEBEER, PROFESSOR EMERITUS, SOUTHERN OREGON UNIVERSITY
“Foley runs pictures and thoughts across the mind like shooting stars on a crystalline night, with emotions shaking the ground.”
THE GREEN BAY PRESS GAZETTE, GREEN BAY, WI
A good storyteller can spin a captivating yarn from the most mundane topics. They can carry their audience to another time and place. It’s an art—and a gift—and Tomáseen Foley has it in spades.
MICHELLE DROWN, THE SANTA BARBARA INDEPENDENT
THE SOCIETY FOR THE FOUR ARTS, PALM BEACH, FL
Great storytelling swept up more than 1,000 listeners Tuesday night at the Weidner Center. Tomáseen Foleyʹs mastery of word and image was supplemented by four versatile performers adding Irish music, dance and song. Gifted performers provided a sampler of Irish style music and dance. Brian Bigley doubled, tripled and quadrupled on instruments (Uilleann pipes, whistles, flutes, a fiddle, etc.) and in styles of dance. Whether in soft shoes or hard soles (all the better for loud, fast clackety‐clack), (Bigley was) nimble and swift.
WARREN GERDS, GREEN BAY PRESS GAZETTE (Concert rating: 4 out of 4 stars)
“Move over, Garrison Keillor. As a presenter of the performing arts who’s always looking for a sure bet, I assure Tomáseen delivers. He deserves a world stage.”
CRATERIAN GINGER ROGERS THEATER, MEDFORD, OR
“A good storyteller . . . can carry (his) audience to another time and place. It’s an art and a gift—and Tomáseen Foley has it in spades. Grammy Award‐winning guitarist
William Coulter provided sublime background . . . Dancer Bigley… showed his superb talents as world‐class Irish step dancers, moving their feet sometimes faster than the eye could follow.
THE SANTA BARBARA INDEPENDENT
“In the tradition of great Irish storytellers…Tomáseen Foley is a master of the Irish narrative and a keeper of the flame for a priceless piece of Irish culture.”
TOM HORAN, REGO IRISH RECORDS
“Tomáseen Foley brings to his audience a mastery of the oral tradition that has marked the Irish spirit for generations.”
ROBERT CASEBEER, PROFESSOR EMERITUS, SOUTHERN OREGON UNIVERSITY
“Foley runs pictures and thoughts across the mind like shooting stars on a crystalline night, with emotions shaking the ground.”
THE GREEN BAY PRESS GAZETTE, GREEN BAY, WI
A good storyteller can spin a captivating yarn from the most mundane topics. They can carry their audience to another time and place. It’s an art—and a gift—and Tomáseen Foley has it in spades.
MICHELLE DROWN, THE SANTA BARBARA INDEPENDENT
PERFORMER BIOGRAPHIES
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TOMÁSEEN FOLEY - NATIVE IRISH STORYTELLER, DIRECTOR
Storyteller Tomáseen Foley was born on a small farm in the remote parish of Teampall an Ghleanntáin in the West of Ireland. Each year from Thanksgiving until Christmas, his show Tomáseen Foley’s A Celtic Christmas plays to critical acclaim and packed concert halls around the US. Tomáseen Foley’s Irish Times tours throughout the remainder of the year. The Oregon Cabaret has developed a hit musical from his story Parcel from America. He has released two CDs: A Celtic Christmas: Parcel from America, and a live recording, The Priest and the Acrobat. Rego Irish Records says “(He) is a master of the Irish narrative and a keeper of the flame for a priceless piece of Irish culture.” tomaseenfoley.com |
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WILLIAM COULTER – GUITAR, MUSIC DIRECTOR
William Coulter is a Grammy Award winning guitarist who has been performing, recording, and teaching traditional, classical, Celtic and folk music for the past 25 years. He is an internationally acclaimed master of the steel-string guitar. In 2005 he won a Grammy for a track he contributed to a solo guitar compilation of Henry Mancini tunes, called Pink Guitar. William performs as both a soloist and a member of ensembles, including Isle of Skye, Orison, and the Coulter-Phillips Ensemble. He has recorded many albums for Gourd, including the best-selling Shaker music CD Simple Gifts, and the critically acclaimed Celtic Sessions. The most recent of his seven CDs on the Gourd Music label is the acclaimed solo album The Road Home. William earned his BA in music from UC Santa Cruz and a Master of Music degree from the San Francisco Conservatory. During his classical studies he was always drawn to traditional Irish and American folk music. This led to a second Master's degree from UCSC, earned in 1994, in ethnomusicology with an emphasis on traditional Irish music, language and song. williamcoulterguitar.com |
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BRIAN BIGLEY - UILLEANN PIPES, IRISH FLUTE, WHISTLES AND TRADITIONAL IRISH DANCE
Brian Bigley has studied the Irish uilleann pipes for nearly 25 years as a player, as well as a maker, of the instrument. He has toured North America and Europe extensively as both a musician and a dancer, appearing in shows such as Tomàseen Foley's A Celtic Christmas, the Omaha Symphony's Celtic Journey, and the Apollo's Fire Countryside Concert Series. In 2002 and 2003 Brian competed with great distinction at the World Irish Dance Championships held in Glasgow and Killarney. He has recently released his fourth recording of traditional Irish music Dance the Town Green in conjunction with the New York School of Irish Dance. Brian now lives near Cleveland, Ohio, with his fiddler wife, Kristen, and their dancing children, James and Kathleen. brianbigleymusic.com |
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EIMEAR ARKINS - MULTI INSTRUMENTALIST, SINGER, IRISH DANCE
Eimear Arkins is a multi-instrumentalist, singer and dancer from Ruan, County Clare, in the west of Ireland. She holds eleven solo All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil titles and has competed in all Ireland, European and World Dance Championships. She has toured with Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann throughout Ireland, Britain, North America and Canada, and represented Ireland in France at Rennes Expo; in Spain in La Noche Negra, in Shanghai, China at World Expo 2010, and in Milan, Italy at World Expo 2015. Eimear was selected to be part of the Comhaltas National Folk Orchestra of Ireland, and for over eight years has performed with the renowned show, Brứ Borứ. She has toured and performed with numerous groups, including Cherish the Ladies, The Paul Brock Band, Trinity Irish Dance Ensemble and Téada. She teaches at St. Louis Irish Arts and has given many workshops in the US and Canada. Eimear was awarded Newcomer of the Year 2019 by liveIreland, and her debut solo album is entitled What's Next. “She is a lovely singer, wonderful fiddle player and a truly accomplished step dancer. Triple threat time! Count us as major new fans of her and what will surely be a terrific career. Eimear Arkins – remember THAT name!” Bill Margeson, liveIRELAND. EimearArkins.com |
