ZoukFest Irish Traditional Music Weekend

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Randal Bays, Dain Forsythe, Eliot Grasso, Roger Landes, Moira Smiley

“Bays is the genuine article,” says The Rough Guide to Irish Music. Among the many Americans who play Irish fiddle, Randal Bays is one of the few to find serious acceptance and respect for his music in Ireland. His 2005 release, House to House (with Roger Landes) was selected by the Irish Times as one of the top five traditional recordings of the year, and the Cork Examiner called him “a rare beast, a master of both the fiddle and the guitar.”

Bays has performed all over the U.S., Europe and Canada, including appearances at major festivals such as the Gaelic Roots Festival in Boston, the San Francisco Celtic Music and Arts Festival, the Festival Des Musiques-Vivantes in France, the Willie Clancy Summer School and Festival in Ireland, Catskills Irish Arts Week in New York, the Swannanoa Gathering in Asheville, North Carolina, Augusta Heritage Week in Elkins, West Virginia, the Friday Harbor Irish Music Camp, the Alaska Irish Music Festival, California’s Sebastopol Festival and many more. Randal has recorded or performed with many great musicians, including James Kelly, John Williams, Daithi Sproule, James Keane, Martin Hayes, and Tony McManus. [return to top]

New to ZoukFest, Dain Forsythe is a rising performer among bodhran players in North America. He placed first in Bodhrán at the 2006 Southeastern Regional Irish Music Competition in Atlanta, Georgia and later that year at the Southeastern Pipers’ Club Tionól, flute instructor John Skelton (The House Band) invited Dain to accompany him during his evening performance. In September of 2006 he taught the Bodhrán workshop at the Atlanta Irish Music Showcase, and performed there with Russell Hopper (Boghopper) and Mark Warford (The Terriers). Dain has performed and taught bodhran throughout the South and Southeast, and since relocating to Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 2007, he has performed throughout the state with Roger Landes. Dain currently teaches bodhran through the University of New Mexico’s Continuing Education Department and at Apple Mountain Music. [return to top]

Baltimore native and Oregon resident Eliot Grasso hails from a long line of familial musicians. He began playing Irish traditional music on the flute at age seven, tin whistle at age eight, and uilleann pipes at age eleven, his earliest exposure including the music of The Chieftains and The Bothy Band. In January of 1995, Eliot began studying rudimentary piping technique with Paul Levin and later that year, began studying advanced piping technique with Na Píobairí Uilleann instructor, Kieran O’Hare. Since 1996, Eliot has won regional and international first, second, and third place titles at the Mid-Atlantic Fleadh Cheoil and Ireland’s International Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann in the uilleann pipes and tin whistle divisions.

Eliot has made appearances at the Kennedy Center with Liz Carroll, Constitution Hall with Ethnomusicologist Dr. Mick Moloney, the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall with The Chieftains, the Library of Congress with Cherish the Ladies, the National Building Museum, the National Geographic Concert Hall, and the home of the Irish Ambassador. In addition, Eliot has performed for the National Heritage Awards, Island, the Washington Cathedral Art Symposium, The American Ireland Fund, the US-Ireland Business Summit, and has entertained President and Mrs. Clinton at the National Endowment for the Arts Awards. At the conclusion of the 1998 Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann, Eliot performed alongside other All-Ireland champions in a concert for Irish President Mary Robinson. [return to top]

Celtic Heritage Magazine said of ZoukFest founder and director Roger Landes: “Not only is Landes helping to legitimize the instrument — he is taking it to a whole other level.” Roger took up the bouzouki in 1981 and co-founded the popular Celtic band Scartaglen. His critically acclaimed CD Dragon Reels is the result of his work mastering the intricacies of Irish traditional music. The Janissary Stomp, with folk and roots musician Chipper Thompson, is a ground-breaking collection of mostly original duets for two bouzoukis. In 1998 and 1999, Roger hosted ZoukFest, the first international gatherings devoted to the Celtic bouzouki, in Missouri. He appeared in and contributed to the soundtrack of the 1999 film Ride with the Devil, directed by Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), and has appeared on the National Public Radio shows Mountain Stage and A Prairie Home Companion. In April 2001, his music was featured in a PBS documentary, Last Stand of the Tallgrass Prairie. In October 2002, Roger joined Galician piper and Chieftains alumn Carlos Nuñez in his first US tour, and toured in a trio with Irish fiddle phenom Frankie Gavin (De Dannan) and harmonica virtuoso Rick Epping (Pumpkinhead). In April of 2004 he had the pleasure of accompanying legendary Irish fiddler Tommy Peoples (Bothy Band) for a week of concerts. House to House, a live duo CD with fiddler and guitarist Randal Bays was chosen one of the Top 5 Releases of Irish traditional music by the Irish Times (Dublin) in 2005. [return to top]

Composer-vocalist Moira Smiley travels the world as a soloist in Early and Traditional music and creates new work with dance, theatre and film. Moira was born in Vermont, moved to Indiana to pursue a piano performance degree at Indiana University School of Music, and finished with a degree in Early Music Vocal Performance, having studied voice with Thomas Binkley, Paul Elliott, Paul Hillier and Alan Bennett. While at IU, Moira toured with her vocal quartet, VIDA, singing a cappella folk song from Eastern Europe and various other vibrant harmony traditions, recorded three CDs of traditional and original songs, and performed in concerts throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe.

Moira moved to California to sing with KITKA Eastern European Vocal Ensemble, with whom she recently premiered the new folk-opera “Rusalka: Between the Worlds.” She continues to study Irish Sean Nós (old-style) singing and Appalachian ballad and dance-song. She recorded a solo CD, Rua, of Irish, Appalachian and her own songs (rua means “red” in Gaelic). With VOCO, her fiery roots vocal-band, Moira fuses a new sound with voices, banjo, cello and percussion that is rooted in traditional song.

Moira taught a semester at University of Birmingham (UK), toured and recorded with the acclaimed Theatre of Voices, Fretwork Consort of Viols, The Dufay Collective, Sinfonye and The Concord Ensemble. In 2001 and 2002, she won Barbara Thornton Memorial Scholarship for Medieval Music, given by the Sequentia Ensemble, and recorded Disc three of the Complete Hildegard Works with Sinfonye (Celestial Harmonies). [return to top]