Next Stage Arts Project

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Next Stage Arts and Twilight Music celebrate the season with an evening of traditional Irish, British Isles, and original holiday music by John Doyle and Mick McAuley.

Both natives of Ireland and each from musical families, John Doyle and Mick McAuley are true powerhouses in traditional Irish music. Their nearly telepathic musical connection began in the truly groundbreaking Irish-American band Solas. Both now have flourishing high-profile solo careers and periodically come together to brush off some Solas standards and lots of their individual material, played together, for these magical musical evenings. An Irish Christmas transports audiences to the quiet, small villages of rural Ireland through the songs, tunes, and stories most familiar to these two world-class artists.

Next Stage Arts and Twilight Music present an evening of contemporary folk music with Antje Duvekot and Goodnight Moonshine (Molly Venter and Eben Pariser).

Antje Duvekot is a German-born, American-raised singer/songwriter whose songs have been critically praised for their hard-won wisdom, dark-eyed realism, and street-smart romanticism. Her bicultural upbringing and relative newness to English have helped shape her unique way with a song, giving her a startlingly original poetic palette. They are the keys to the powerful, even revolutionary, empathy that informs everything she writes. She has won some of the top songwriting awards including the Grand Prize in the John Lennon Songwriting Competition, the Kerrville Folk Festival Best New Folk Award, and the Boston Music Award for Outstanding Folk Act.

Guitar and vocal duo Goodnight Moonshine combines the evocative voice and songwriting of Molly Venter with Eben Pariser's adventurous guitar playing to create folk music with a depth of improvisation and tonal subtlety. The two guitars/two voices format allows Molly and Eben to focus entirely on each other's gifts, and enter a hypnotic trance, a cycle of responsive vocal inspiration and guitar improvisation that deepens throughout their concerts. A couple both on and off the stage, they integrate their singular talents in a format that is both genre-less and grounded in commonness. Molly's career highlights include Tønder Festival in Denmark and Kate Wolf Fest in California performances, and multiple placements on television and film. Starting as a blues guitarist in his teens, Eben has since performed with the band Roosevelt Dime, and with Red Molly, doubling as their musical director. Together as Goodnight Moonshine, they have recorded two albums.

Hazmat Modine is "a uniquely intercontinental sonic collage encompassing a tremendous range of instrumental, vocal, and conceptual originality–all with a lot of soul and groove." This dynamic eight-piece band has toured and performed original songs for 25+ years with genre-defying music that is quintessentially New York–vibrant international cultures meets American Roots. Diverse backgrounds in Gypsy Jazz, Downtown Avant Guard loft music, Blues, Soul, Country, Rock n' Roll, and Roots is written and performed by musicians whose ages span every decade from their 20s to 70s.

Unique instrumentation matches virtuosic trumpet, saxophone, trombone, guitar, tuba, harmonica, drums, banjo, and violin with a fantastical array of folk instruments and guest performers. The extraordinary vocals by lead Wade Schuman are riveting, rousing, and emotive, and his mastery of harmonica is unparalleled.

Worldwide performances include WOMAD (England, Australia, & NZ), Jazz and Folk festivals of Berlin, Vienna, Montreal, Pori, Cambridge, Vancouver & Calgary, FMM Sines, and Live on BBC 3. They have toured from China to Brazil, Mexico, Russia, India, Malaysia, Central Asia, and across Europe. Musical collaborators have included: The Kronos Quartet, Gangbé Brass Band (Benin), Natalie Merchant, Son of Dave, and Tuva's Huun-Huur-Tu and Alash, and Balla Kouyate (Mali). They have written for Japanese television, Wim Wenders' film "Pina", and the Nobel Laureates 75th Anniversary. Their newest album, BONFIRE release date May 2023.