Six-time Grammy Award winners, The Chieftains, have been highly recognized for reinventing traditional Irish music on a contemporary and International scale. The Chieftains were formed in Ireland in 1962 by Paddy Moloney, one of the top traditional folk musicians in Ireland. Their ability to transcend musical boundaries to blend tradition with modern music has notably hailed them as one of the most renowned and revered musical groups to this day. After more than fifty years of making some of the most beautiful music in the world, The Chieftains’ music remains as fresh and relevant as when they first began.
As cultural ambassadors, their performances have been linked with seminal historic events, such as being the first Western musicians to perform on the Great Wall of China, participating in Roger Water’s “The Wall” performance in Berlin in 1990 and being the first ensemble to perform a concert in the Capitol Building in Washington DC. In 2010, their experimental collaborations extended to out of this world, when Paddy Moloney’s whistle and Matt Molloy’s flute travelled with NASA astronaut, Cady Coleman, to the international space station. Although their early following was purely a folk audience, the range and variation of their music and accompanying musicians quickly captured a much broader audience, elevating their status to the likeness of fellow Irish band, U2. The Chieftains are never afraid to shock purists and push genre boundaries and the trappings of fame have not altered The Chieftains’ love of, and loyalty to, their roots however- they are as comfortable playing spontaneous Irish sessions as they are headlining a concert at Carnegie Hall. www.thechieftains.com
Performers: Paddy Moloney – uilleann pipes/tin whistle, Matt Molloy – flute, Kevin Conneff bodhran/vocals, Jon Pilatzke – fiddle/dance, Triona Marshall – harp/keys, Alyth McCormack – vocals/percussion, Tara Breen – fiddle/saxophone, Tim Edey – guitar, Martin Murray – mandolin/banjo, Cara Butler – dance, Nathan Pilatzke – dance

THE CHIEFTAINS to perform at the Colorado Symphony – Boettcher Concert Hall, 1000 14th St., No. 15 Denver, CO 80202 on March 15th at 7:30pm, tickets: 303.623.7876 http://www.coloradosymphony.org/Contact/Box-Office-Patron-Services