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Goshen College

The Chieftains bring their traditional Irish sounds to Goshen

February 14, 2018

Concert: The Chieftains
Date & Time: Saturday, March 3, 2018, 7:30 p.m.
Location: Goshen College Music Center’s Sauder Concert Hall
Cost: $60, $55, $45

Six-time Grammy Award-winning Irish group The Chieftains will present a Performing Arts Series concert on Saturday, March 3, 2018 at 7:30 p.m. in the Music Center’s Sauder Concert Hall. They will be joined by Mishawaka-based Caledonia Kilty Pipe Band, which includes several Goshen residents and GC alumni.

The Chieftains are globally renowned for reinventing traditional Irish music on an international scale. Celebrating their 55th anniversary, the group’s captivating blend of folk and contemporary music continues to capture a broad audience spanning all ages. Performing at the world’s top venues such as Carnegie Hall, this beloved band pushes genre boundaries with acclaimed artists on vocals, guitar, flute, fiddle, bodhrán, tin whistle and uilleann pipes.

The band first formed in Dublin in 1963 as a semi-professional outfit for the ranks of the top folk musicians in Ireland. Until that time, and for some years after, the world’s perception of Irish folk songs was rooted in either the good-natured boisterousness and topicality of acts such as the Irish Rover or the sentimentality of Mary O’Hara.

The Chieftains have played in concert for Pope John Paul, before an audience of more than one million people in Phoenix Park in Dublin, Ireland. In 2011, the performed a Concert in Dublin attended by President Mary McAleese and Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain during her first ever official trip to the Republic of Ireland.

As cultural ambassadors, their performances have been linked with seminal historic events, such as being the first Western musicians to perform on the Great Wall of China, participating in Roger Waters’ “The Wall” performance in Berlin in 1990, and being the first ensemble to perform a concert in the Capitol Building in Washington DC. In 2010, their experimental collaborations extended to out of this world, when Paddy Moloney’s whistle and Matt Molloy’s flute travelled with NASA astronaut, Cady Coleman, to the International Space Station.

The Chieftains are never afraid to shock purists and push boundaries. In their 55 years together The Chieftains have amassed a dizzyingly varied resume, and have broken many musical boundaries by collaborating and performing with some of the biggest names in rock, pop and traditional music in Ireland and around the world. Their music remains fresh and relevant as when they first began.

Caledonia Kilty Pipe Band

Caledonia Kilty Pipe Band (CKPB), based in Mishawaka, Indiana, is one of the oldest continuously-performing bagpipe bands in the country. The band was formed in 1954 by Lewis Morgan Sneddon, a Scottish immigrant, who taught the original band using handwritten music or music played from memory. Today, the band has about 15 pipers and eight drummers and are members of the Midwest Pipe Band Association. They perform at parades, festivals, competitions and private events throughout the region, and, keeping to the long tradition of pipe bands offering lessons for free, they continue that tradition of free lessons for all levels. Contact can be made through the band’s Facebook page or website

The CKPB is led by South Bend resident Sean Meehan, who has occasionally performed with The Chieftains since 2005 as a guest artist and serves as a “piping agent” for when they are in the Chicago area. Among local CKPB members who will perform during the March 3 concert are two Goshen College alumni － Claire Gisel ’98 and Todd Yoder ’84, who is also a major gift officer at Goshen College.

Tickets are $60, $55, $45 and can be purchased through the Goshen College Box Office (574-535-7566, boxoffice@goshen.edu) or online at www.goshen.edu/tickets.

Upcoming concerts in the Performing Arts Series include: