The Dennos Museum Center at Northwestern Michigan College will present Dervish from Ireland on Saturday, March 5, 2016 at 8:00 PM in the Milliken Auditorium. Tickets are $27 in advance, $30 at the door, $24 for Museum Members. Tickets may be purchased by calling the Museum Box office at 231-995-1553 or on line at www.dennosmuseum.org.
Dervish plays music from the West of Ireland with passionate vocals and dazzling instrumentals. The Sligo Borough Council’s decision to award Dervish the Freedom of the Borough of Sligo cemented the group’s position as preeminent band in Ireland’s wild west. It raised them into the exalted company of poet W.B. Yeats, who was the first person to be awarded the freedom of Sligo.
Built upon two sturdy pillars — the hauntingly charismatic vocals of Cathy Jordan and the dazzling virtuosity of award-winning instrumentalists like Tom Morrow on fiddle, Liam Kelly on flute, and Shane Mitchell on accordion, Dervish is a solid structure of a band, its foundation in legendary pub sessions, its shape the result of years of international touring. In the most recent of many honors, Dervish was recently chosen to represent Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest. In 2005, just after the group toured China in the company of the Prime Minister, Ireland’s premier music magazine Hot Press voted the band Best Traditional / Folk Group.
The solid rhythm playing of Brian McDonagh and Michael Holmes drives the band, whose concert performances are a myriad of tones and moods ranging from high energy tunes, played with fluidity and intuitiveness, to beautifully measured songs, from charming lyrics of life and love, to inspiring melodies that lift audiences from their seats. All the elements are drawn together by Cathy Jordan’s masterful stage presence. Her stories to the songs and her interaction with the audience draws people into the music in a way very few performers can achieve
Now, more than twenty years since first coming together and with four of the original members still at the helm, Dervish are more in demand than ever. Their colorful career has taken them to every corner of the globe and has seen them share center stage with such names as James Brown, The Buena Vista Social Club, Oasis, Sting, REM, Beck and many more. Dervish is a band that both celebrates Irish music and has been instrumental in bringing it to a worldwide audience.
With the purchase of a ticket to this performance, concert goers are invited to visit the museum’s galleries one hour before the concert and attend a post-concert reception with the performers.
The Dennos concert season is made possible with support from the Robert T and Ruth Haidt Trust, the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, the Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs, WNMC 90.7, CMU Public Broadcasting and TV 29&8. Housing for our performers is provided by the Cambria Suites.
The Dennos Museum Center is open daily 10 AM to 5 PM, Thursdays until 8 PM, and Sundays 1-5 PM. Admission is $6.00 adults, $4.00 for children and free to museum members. For more information on the Museum and its programs, go to www.dennosmuseum.org or call 231-995-1055. The Dennos Museum Center is located at 1410 College Drive, Traverse City, MI 49686, at the entrance to the campus of Northwestern Michigan College.