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UPDATE: The show will be rescheduled at a later date due to the pending snowstorm.
FARMINGTON — New England Celtic Arts will present “Celtic Couples” at North Church Concerts, with the Farmington Historical Society, Saturday, April 1. Curtain rises at 7 p.m. with a jam session and pie social starting at 6:15 p.m.
Two of Maine’s most notable performing couples, Don and Cindy Roy along with Matt and Erica Brown Shipman, will present an evening of Downeast fiddle tunes, song and dance. From the logging camps to the coast of Maine, fiddle and dance tunes run deep in Maine’s rich musical heritage.
At the forefront of the Franco American community in the Greater Portland area, one finds the musical duo of Don and Cindy Roy who have long entertained audiences in the Southern Maine area and beyond. Don is the Dean of Acadian and Franco traditions in Maine. Performances by Don Roy include the Library of Congress and the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. Other notable concerts include Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, MerkinConcert Hall, The Barns at Wolf Trap, two appearances with Garrison Keillor and performances at the American Folk Festival.
Erica Brown Shipman developed an interest in music at age of seven, she was competing in fiddle contests with musicians twice her age. At age nine, she traveled throughout New England, Canada and even Louisiana with the Maine French Fiddlers. Erica also performed as a special guest with Mac McHale and the Old-Time Radio Gang for five years. Currently, she has her own bluegrass band, Erica Brown & The Bluegrass Connection, performing all over New England. Erica is also a member of The Stowaways, Darlin’ Corey and The Record Family Band. Erica Brown was a recipient of a 2006 Maine Arts Commission Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Award and was recognized as a Master Artist by the Maine Arts Commission that same year.
Matt Shipman currently resides in Portland and is a performer and teacher of acoustic and traditional music. He has been teaching guitar and mandolin at a Community Music School in Yarmouth called 317 Main Street for six years now and has been performing for more than a decade. He also enjoys playing bouzouki, tenor and claw-hammer banjo. He attended the Hartt School of Music for a time, studying jazz trumpet before going back to his first love of traditional and acoustic music. This appreciation of traditional music is reflected in his college career — a 2004 graduate of Vermont College, majoring in a self-designed major of traditional music studies.
North Church is located at 12 High St.; tickets are $15. For more information, 207-778-2006 or www.necelticarts.com
