Posted on Wednesday, February 24, 2010 at 03:43 PM
Vanessa Williams comes to the Blarney Star to hear Cormac Breatnach, Mike Considine & Ivan Goff

In a display of excellent taste,
Vanessa Williams, was at
Ireland House last Friday night to enjoy as we all did, the music of
Cormac Breatnach,
Mike Considine and special-guest
Ivan Goff in the second concert of five in the
Blarney Star series happening this year.
Don Meade's Blarney Star productions are landmark dates on the calendar of Irish New York, offering an intimate setting for connoisseurs of ceol in the heart of
Greenwich Village and the shadow of
Washington Square Park, on Fifth Avenue.


Cormac Breatnach comes from an interesting cultural background, that has influenced his music and his philosophy of Irish traditional music. At home, as a child, he was raised speaking Irish with his father, and Castillian Spanish with his mother, whom he would later discover had proud Basque roots. English would come easily enough his parents thought from the streets. He explores these personal influences on a variety of wind instruments and in compositions, and has been doing so professionally with such luminaries as
DĂłnal Lunny and
MĂĄire Breatnach (no relation). He was a member of Donal Lunny's
Celtic Orchestra in 1985, with members
Arty McGlynn,
Nollaig Casey (Coolfin), Manus Lunny (Capercaillie),
Steve White,
SeĂĄn Ăg Potts and
Damien Quinn. He then founded Méristem which featured Måire Breatnach,
Niall Ă CallanĂĄin & Steve White; and later Deiseal. You can read his extensive discography,
here. Audience members were buying up his
"Musical Journey" CD like hot-cakes after the show.


Mike Considine is an Irish Londoner, whose people come from Cinn Mhara (Kinvara), on the
Galway Bay (Loch
Lurgan). He spent much time living in
Galway and
New Zealand, learning his music by ear, and becoming one of Irish traditional music's finest bouzouki players and a most sought-after accompanist.









The remaining three
Blarney Star concerts of the year are as follows:
MARCH 12:
KEVIN CRAWFORD & CILLIAN VALLELYAPRIL 16:
DONIE CARROLLMAY 14:
JAMES KEANE &
RANDAL BAYSYou can read about the first Blarney Star concert that happened in January,
here.