It’s a Celtic Christmas with Nollaig

Concert: Saturday, December 9th, 2000 at 8pm

      The Watchung Arts Center presents a special seasonal concert on Saturday, December 9th at 8pm with the traditional Irish group Nollaig. Nollaig, which means Christmas in Irish Gaelic, has been performing their Celtic Christmas music program for the past 6 years. The rest of the  year, the group has diverging performing schedules with Kathy DeAngelo and Dennis Gormley performing as the popular husband-wife duo McDermott’s Handy and Debbie Brewin-Wilson assuming her solo Scottish harping  and singer/songwriter career. Once a year  the group brings together their strong backgrounds in the Irish and Scottish tradition to present a diverse seasonal program.

      There are two Celtic harps in this group besides a wide array of other instruments. Ms. DeAngelo and Ms. Brewin-Wilson have 25 years combined experience on the Celtic harp. Ms. DeAngelo also plays the fiddle and bodhran (Irish drum). Mr. Gormley lends his substantial talents on the guitar, flute and a variety of tinwhistles. Nollaig has particularly strong vocals, each member being a seasoned performer.

      Kathy and Dennis have been performing traditional Irish music together as McDermott’s Handy for over 20 years. They have an album “Come Take the Byroads” and one Christmas tape “O Come Little Children” recorded with the Merrie Mates. Debbie has been performing on the Scottish folk scene for a number of years. She was the National Scottish Harp champion in 1991 and now has two recordings, “Dream of Caledonia”, and “Roots and Wings”.

      “Much of the traditional music in Ireland and Scotland for this season actually pre-dates the modern way we celebrate Christmas, which only started in the 1830s” says Ms. DeAngelo. These were agrarian societies, notes Ms. DeAngelo, and the first long dark nights of winter were times to celebrate, simply because there was no field work to do. “The crops were in. The animals slaughtered for winter. No wonder so many of the songs talked about food!”