It was great to back at St. George's Round Church this weekend for the first performance of 2026, to accompany the adult and junior choirs in a few beautiful selections - Wolcum Yole, This Little Babe, Time of Snow, Ave Maria, and In Dulci Jubilo. Thank you to Garth and the congregation for including me!
It was great to be back at Bethany United for their Christmas Eve service last week. Many thanks to Shawn and the congregation for having me back for a seventh year!
Adrianna and I had a great little tour this month, playing in Antigonish, Riverport, and Halifax. Thank you to everyone who supported the Pear Tree this year!
Jude, Jennifer, Anthony, and I had a great week of touring through Nova Scotia with a program of mostly medieval Christmas tunes and carols, presented by Musique Royale.
My dear friend Laura just released her debut recording, a Christmas album called "Brighter & Brighter", and I was very honoured to be part of the project. Take a listen on bandcamp below!
Although their Christmas Eve service was snowed out, Bethany United Church rescheduled the Christmas Eve programming to their Sunday service on December 29th. It was lovely to play some folksy Christmas selections and Silent Night with the congregation. Thank you to Shawn Whynot for having me back and to the congregation for being so welcoming!
Last night I was very happy to be back at St. George's Round Church for their annual Lessons & Carols service, playing prelude music and accompanying the junior and senior choirs. The choir repertoire included The Snow Lay On Ground (David Conte), Star Carol (John Rutter), This Little Babe (Benjamin Britten), Long, Long Ago (W.H. Anderson), and A la Nanita Nana (arr. Azzara). Many thanks to the music director, Garth MacPhee, for having me and for organizing so much beautiful music.
On December 1st, Adrianna and I released our music video for The Pear Tree album. It was filmed in Helen Creighton's study at Evergreen House in Dartmouth by Luke Fraser and features the 6th track on the album "The Cherry Tree Carol / The Back of Winter". Many thanks to Luke and to the Dartmouth Heritage Museum for making it such a fun shoot!
Adrianna Ciccone and I have recorded a Christmas album! Entitled The Pear Tree, it is an eight track fiddle and harp instrumental album. We've arranged a selection of our favourite carol melodies along with some original tunes and traditional tunes. Visit bandcamp to see the track listing and to hear a preview track! The album will be released on November 15, 2024.
This year I returned for the fifth time to play with the Manning Chapel Choir as part of their holiday concert, Wassail! The choir was directed as always by John Scott and this year featured soloists soprano Nicole Jordan, cellist Catherine Little, and percussionist Ken Shorley, along with the usual ensemble of myself, Charlie, and Jude.
This year I was back at Bethany United Church on Christmas Eve and St George's Round Church on Epiphany to play harp preludes for the services. It was especially a treat to accompany the St George's choir and children's choir, both conducted by Garth MacPhee. Many thanks to Garth and to Shawn Whynot at Bethany for having me!
This weekend, I was delighted to be back as part of the band for Diaga Irish Dance's Celtic Christmas production. It was held at Alderney Landing Theatre and featured many different local dance groups and musical performers.
This year, since St. George's couldn't do their usual Christmas programming, they put together a lovely video of readings and music. I contributed some prelude music (Tàladh Chriosda and The Sussex Carol at 3:57) and accompanied Elyse Delaney for the Cherry Tree carol, at 32:28.
This week I participated in a little video collaboration with cellist Catherine Little. The video was sent out as part of a holiday series of musical surprises for her mailing list subscribers. Learn about Catherine here!
Although we were prevented from touring this year, Síle has created a little Christmas release of the beautiful Wexford Carol. Originally collected in County Wexford, Ireland, the lyrics of this traditional song date back to the 12th century. Many thanks to Jude Pelley for mixing and Alex Hewitt for mastering this track.
