Thanks to everyone who submitted recordings for our 2021 digital Saturday Night Concert!
2021 Featured Artists
Mary McLaughlin
Joining us from Northern Ireland, Mary McLaughlin is a singer/songwriter/teacher who is steeped in the Ulster Gaelic song tradition of her native Ireland where she was born and raised.
Mary records, performs and teaches workshops in singing skills, performance technique and Gaelic song and culture. She has toured extensively throughout North America, teaching and performing at Celtic/Irish camps.
Illiteratty
Illiteratty plays metafolk; original swing, European cabaret, ambient, Celtic, rockabilly, a cappella, folk, world, pop, (did we mention folk?), with sharp lyrics and up to five-part vocals. Their instrumentation is arranged for three to six musicians, and their full complement includes guitar, mandolin, violin, keys/accordion, upright bass, and small percussion. Illiteraty’s music is funny, angry, idiosyncratic, intelligent, and varied.
Otter’s Holt
Otter’s Holt (Barbara and David Denz) met in graduate school over thirty-five years ago and have been singing and performing together ever since. Their specialty together is “eclectic Celtic music.” The music they choose follows the Celts through their time and influences across Europe and North America and the seas in between. While their music is usually “Celtic,” Barbara and David come from varied musical backgrounds, bringing those rich influences with them into the musical knit.
Small Potatoes
Originally five hand-picked musicians from the Traditional Irish music scene in Vancouver, selected because they were the only ones available on St. Patrick”s Day in 1995, Small Potatoes has been getting smaller ever since. In their current incarnation they are Gerry Bradley and Sasha Pawliuk. Using fiddle, flute, harp and voice, they weave a traditional sound in jigs, reels and ballads. Pre-Covid, these stolid session workhorses could often be found in local pubs drinking stout, under the impression that they were in the west of Ireland.
the Treble Makers
The Treble Makers are a female a cappella trio who started singing a year ago as a result of the pandemic. We all belong to a larger a cappella group called Oceanside A Cappella Chorus, who have been singing together for two years. When the larger group was unable to meet, out of their love of singing and their friendship, a trio was formed. They sing Celtic music, blues, jazz, bluegrass, classical, sacred and folk. The Treble Makers members are Liane Watson, Penny Harber and Shelly Pudetz.
Laurie Riley
Recipient of the 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award for her accomplishments in performance, teaching, and her pioneering work in therapeutic music in hospitals, ergonomics for musicians, and the contemporary double-strung harp, Laurie Riley has has toured, adjudicated and taught for over 30 years. She has recorded over a dozen harp albums and is a respected author of numerous music-related books and instructional DVDs. Her music has been heard on American Airlines, NPR’s All Things Considered, the Narada Collections, and in venues worldwide, and she played with the Chieftains during their U.S. tour in 2002.
Kerri Coombs
Born in Ottawa and raised in Calgary, Kerri Coombs has lived in Toronto, Montreal, the United Kingdom and Ireland before settling on the West Coast of Canada. Her curiosity about the world, its people, and its history inform her intimate, insightful lyrics and diverse melodic tastes. An accomplished songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Kerri has played with over a dozen musical collaborations in venues around the world and shared her infectious enthusiasm and unique approach to musical self-expression with students of every age, in a variety of styles and genres. Kerri is the president of the Islands Celtic Festival Society, and the founder of the BC Folk Song Project.
Many thanks to our performers, who are offering their time out of the kindness of their hearts and their love of the music. If you would like to help us raise the funds to compensate our instructors and performers, please visit our donation page!