Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts

PADDY MOLONEY and THE CHIEFTAINS Celebrate 50th Anniversary Tour with Philadelphia Performance, March 9

FEBRUARY 10, 2012

"With 50 years of glorious music behind us, I can think of nothing more exciting than to spend another 50 years collaborating with the best voices of the future." – Paddy Moloney

 

Ireland’s official musical ambassadors The Chieftains celebrate their 50th Anniversary Tour with Philadelphia performance at the Kimmel Center on March 9, 2012 at 8 p.m. in Verizon Hall. The six-time Grammy-winning ensemble performs traditional Irish music and dancing on stage, as well as new works from their 2012 release, Voice of Ages. Their performance features Paddy Moloney as pipe virtuoso and master of ceremonies, Matt Molloy on flute, Kevin Conneff as the rhythmic and vocal heartbeat of the ensemble on the bodhrán, along with Deanie Richardson and Jon Pilatzke on fiddles, Triona Marshall on harp, and Jeff White on guitar.

 

Philadelphia marks one of the final U.S. stops on The Chieftains’ 50th Anniversary Tour, which concludes with a special St. Patrick’s Day concert at Carnegie Hall on March 17. Also marking their semi-centennial is the February 21 release of Voice of Ages, an imaginative recording featuring a dazzling collection of like-minded musical visionaries and kindred spirits. The album includes collaborations with stars of indie-rock, country and Americana, and Irish-Scottish folk such as The Decemberists, The Punch Brothers, The Civil Wars, Lisa Hannigan, Paolo Nutini, Imelda May, Bon Iver, and more.

 

 “The Chieftains may be the world’s most popular Irish traditional folk group, but, over the years, they’ve become something like a musical genealogical society, climbing out onto the branches of Celtic music’s family tree and plucking delicious fruit. From the Chieftains’ perspective, the music of the Irish can be found all over the world, and they’ve made a convincing argument of it over the course of 42 years and 41 albums.” – St. Paul Pioneer Press

 

Tickets for Paddy Moloney and The Chieftains are available at $37.50 to $77, and can be purchased by calling 215-893-1999, online at kimmelcenter.org, or at the Kimmel Center Box Office located on Broad and Spruce streets, Philadelphia, Pa. (open daily from 10am to 6pm, later on performance evenings).

 

Voice of Ages is the anticipated follow-up to The Chieftains’ 2010 album San Patricio which was met with glowing reviews, called “as thrilling as it is enlightening” by Billboard, and described by The New York Times as "joy, thoroughly Mexican yet utterly Irish, carried aloft by tin whistles, skin drums, pipes, harps, guitars and stomping feet." The album sold over 60,000 copies in North America alone and reached number 37 in the Billboard 200, making it the most successful of all 58 of The Chieftains’ albums.


Since releasing San Patricio, the band has collaborated with Herbie Hancock on The Imagine Project, and Moloney has been selected as a Medal of Honor recipient for Lifetime Achievement in Music by the National Arts Club. Following their Carnegie Hall performance this spring, The Chieftains continue their tour abroad with performances across Europe and Japan through December 2012.

 

Although their early following was purely a folk audience, the range and variation of The Chieftains’ music very quickly captured a much broader public. Today they are widely recognized for bringing traditional Irish music to the world’s attention. Since Paddy Maloney first formed the group in 1962, The Chieftains have been honored with 18 Grammy Award nominations and six Grammy wins, along with an Emmy Award, a Genie Award, and an Academy Award for their hit single “Women of Ireland” on the soundtrack to Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon.

 

While the band’s musical sound has evolved over the years with the departure and arrival of new players, The Chieftains have remained true to their roots and are known for the scope of music they perform in addition to the grace and humor their members bring to live performances. Their amazingly varied musical history includes a tour of China (the first Western group to perform on the Great Wall); Roger Waters' "The Wall" performance in Berlin in 1990; and performances in the Capitol Building in Washington D.C., to welcome Pope John Paul II to Ireland in 1979, and at a Ground Zero memorial service in October 2001. The Chieftains have performed with some of the finest symphony orchestras worldwide and have broken many musical boundaries by collaborating and performing with some of the biggest names in rock, pop and traditional music in Ireland and around the world.

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Kimmel Center, Inc., a charitable, not-for-profit organization, owns, manages, supports and maintains The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, which includes Verizon Hall, Perelman Theater, Innovation Studio and the Merck Arts Education Center. Kimmel Center, Inc. also manages the Academy of Music, owned by the Philadelphia Orchestra Association, and the University of the Arts Merriam Theater. Kimmel Center, Inc.’s mission is to operate a world class performing arts center that engages and serves a broad audience which includes providing arts in education, community outreach and a rich diversity of programming. The 2011/2012 season is sponsored by Citi. For additional information, visit kimmelcenter.org.

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