Through music, dance, poetry and song, A SOUTHERN CELTIC CHRISTMAS CONCERT celebrates the high spirits and mystical beauty of Celtic and Appalachian Christmas traditions. Produced on stage at the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts at Emory University, the one-hour special features performances by three Grammy winners: "First Lady of Celtic Song" Moya Brennan, Celtic and bluegrass banjo virtuoso Alison Brown and Riverdance composer Bill Whelan. The program also features the soulful duo Rising Appalachia percussionist Joe Craven, Irish balladeer John Doyle, uilleann piper John Maschinot, The Buddy O'Reilly Band, the Rosin Sisters and other top traditional musicians from the Southeast. James Flannery, director of the W.B. Yeats Foundation and a noted interpreter of Irish/Southern culture, hosts this entertaining and inspiring holiday production. Amid old ruins in Ireland, Flannery interviews the late Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney, who talks about the folk influences behind his poem, "St. Kevin and the Blackbird."
