MÁIRE is one of Ireland’s most important and influential traditional musicians, awarded Female Musician of the Year in the Live Ireland 2016 awards and sole harpist recipient to date of Irish music’s most prestigious award, that of TRADITIONAL MUSICIAN OF THE YEAR – GRADAM CHEOIL TG4 – “for the excellence and pioneering force of her music, the remarkable growth she has brought to the music of the harp and for the positive influence she has had on the young generation of harpers”.

CHRIS is a “brilliant English master of the acoustic guitar” (THE DAILY TELEGRAPH), a “dazzling player” (ACOUSTIC GUITAR, USA) whose work is “nothing short of brilliant” (DIRTY LINEN, USA). He was Live Ireland’s Male Musician of the Year 2009. He began to play guitar at the age of four and at fourteen played his first paid gig in a folk club. A prolific composer, arranger and record producer, he’s played with luminaries of many musical worlds: folk (harper Máire Ní Chathasaigh and Boys of the Lough), jazz (Stéphane Grappelli and Diz Disley) and comedy (Fred Wedlock).

Together their performances are rooted but eclectic, emotional but adventurous: a breathtaking blend of traditional Irish music, hot jazz, bluegrass and baroque, coupled with striking new compositions and Chris’s “delightfully subversive” wit.

Máire and Chris will play a feature concert and a set in the Sunday evening showcase, run a workshop on traditional Irish music and each present masterclasses in (respectively) the harp and guitar.