Best of Boxwood

Taking place annually in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, the Boxwood Festival is renowned for its inspiring, multi-generational environment of workshops and concerts centered around traditional music and early music, with experts and amateurs providing an immersive artistic experience. This year the tour features Kevin Burke (one of Ireland’s premiere fiddlers),  Bruce Molsky (the virtuoso of many instruments and powerful vocals),  Chris Norman (master of the wooden flute, and founder of Boxwood  Festivals), Eamon O’Leary (the much loved Irish singer-songwriter), and  Janelle Lucyk (a baroque singer).

At the heart of the group is Chris Norman, whose brilliant and imaginative flute playing has contributed to groups as diverse as The Baltimore  Consort, Skyedance, Helicon, Chatham Baroque, Concerto Caledonia, as well as Hollywood soundtracks and seven solo recordings. His influential work as a performer, composer, recording artist, educator, and director of the Boxwood Festival & Workshop has played a significant role in reviving the flute in traditional Scottish and Canadian music.

Tickets: $20/adults, $10/students

Artist bios

Kevin BURKE - Fiddle - Kevin is one of Ireland’s premier fiddlers. He is inextricably linked in the annals of traditional music with his role in the near-legendary Bothy Band in the 1970s. After moving to Portland in 1980, Kevin Burke and Bothy Band guitarist and singer Micháel O Domhnaill teamed up again and produced two classic albums: Promenade and Portland, which received critical acclaim. Kevin was a founding member of Patrick Street and has toured extensively with the Celtic Fiddle Festival. He was recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts in 2002 and received a coveted National Heritage Fellowship.

Bruce MOLSKY - Fiddle, Guitar, Song, Banjo - Bruce transports audiences to another time and place with his authentic and personal interpretations of rarities from the Southern Appalachian songbook and other musical traditions from around the globe. Best known for his work on the fiddle, his banjo, guitar, and his distinctive, powerful vocals, and his combination of technical virtuosity and relaxed conversational wit makes a concert hall feel like an intimate front porch gathering. He has collaborated with Mark Knopfler, Anonymous 4, Andy Irvine & Donal Lunny, the BBC TV “Transatlantic Sessions” with Aly Bain and Jerry Douglas, and on “David Holt’s State of Music” on PBS and longtime collaborators Darol Anger, Tony Trischka and Mountain Drifters’ Allison de Groot.

Chris Norman - flute, pipes - Powered by his love and mastery of the simple wooden flute, Chris Norman has gained an international profile over the past three decades via his critically praised work as a performer, composer, teacher, flute-maker, and builder of a musical community. Born in Halifax, NS, Chris developed an early passion for traditional Maritime, Celtic, and French Canadian music. He has toured worldwide and appears on more than 40 commercial recordings and numerous Hollywood soundtracks. He is the driving force behind Boxwood Festivals, whose annual weeklong celebrations of traditional music have taken place in Canada, The USA, Australia, and New Zealand, and was presented with the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, and Doctor of Laws, honoris causa by Dalhousie University in 2015 for contributions to the arts in Canada.

Eamon O’LEARY - Guitar, Song, Banjo - Eamon O’Leary is a songwriter, guitar, bouzouki, and banjo player from New York’s Lower East Side, originally from Dublin, Ireland. He has developed his songcraft, appearing live and collaborating with esteemed artists such as Sam Amidon, Beth Orton, Bonnie Prince Billy, Anais Mitchell, Anna and Elizabeth, and Martin Hayes, releasing five recordings of original songs including Old Clump, All Souls, Sister in Song, Bernadette, and The Silver Sun. He has toured extensively throughout North America and Europe, performing and recording with many of Irish music’s great players. Eamon regularly tours and records with The Murphy Beds, Jefferson Hamer, and old friends John Doyle and Nuala Kennedy to form The Alt.

Janelle LUCYK - song, fiddle - Janelle Lucyk is a leader among an emerging generation of Canadian artists specializing in historically informed performance, taking ideas from conception to the stage. She is the artistic director of the early music ensemble Ménestrel and is the artistic & administrative director of Musique Royale (est. 1985), a music presenter based in Lunenburg, NS which enriches historic spaces through the sharing of world-class early music, and more. She graduated with distinction from the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles (Belgium) and has a Masters in Management from Durham University (UK).