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Thomas Loefke,
studied in Berlin and Dublin where he had tuition from Ireland's leading
harp players - Máire Ní Chathasaigh,
Helen Davies and Áine Ní Dhúill
-Soon he started to compose his own music. He has been touring since 1984
and has won several international prizes, inluding first prize at the
O'Carolan Harp Festival in Ireland. In 1992
he released the first album: "New Music for Celtic
Harp". The 2nd album "Norland Wind"
was released by the Irish top class label Celtic Heartbeat ("Riverdance").
Besides working with Norland Wind he also works
as a soloist and in projects with "Riverdance"
fiddle player Máire Breatnach and American cello/guitar duo
Acoustic Eidolon.
Kerstin
Blodig studied musicology and Scandinavian languages and cultures
in Berlin (Germany) and in Bergen (Norway), with particular emphasis on
Norwegian folk music.Today she tours all over the world with a wide variety
of different projects, ranging from studio work and theatre-music productions
to the Celtic groups Touchwood with Belfast musician Cristina
Crawley and the folk-pop band Talking Water. She cultivates
her Norwegian roots in in the duo Kelpie with Ian Melrose,
in her solo performances and her Celtic-Scandinavian World Music project
Valivann. Her solo-CD "Valivann" won the
renowned German Critics Prize in the field of Worldmusic
/ Folk. She has just released her 2nd solo album: "Trollsang"
Máire
Breatnach is a musician of exceptional calibre on the Irish music
scene. An accomplished violinist and composer, she has participated in
almost all of the leading Irish music recordings of recent years. and
she is also widely known for her studio session work and for her expertise
as an arranger, producer and composer of many outstanding film scores.
As the initial fiddler with "Riverdance- The Show" she
worked closely with Bill Whelan, performing on the original CD,
and has also worked with, amongst others, Nigel Kennedy, Mike Oldfield,
Christy Moore, Donal Lunny, Altan and Sinéad O'Connor. Her
four solo CD's are considered as classics both in the fields of traditional
music and contemporary composition.
Noel
and Pádraig Duggan hail from an Irish speaking and highly musical
family in Gweedore Co Donegal in the Northwest of Ireland. The twin brothers
have been playing music from early childhood.
After playing in dancehall bands in their youth, together with Ciarán,
and Pól Brennan they formed the
group Clannad,
which would soon achieve cult status. By the last 24 years they have carried
the sound of the Irish language across the world. With 18 released CDs,
worldwide chart appearances, innumerable prizes including a BAFTA
Award for the album "Legend" and the
Grammy Award for the
album "Landmarks", Clannad
is one of Ireland's most successful bands ever.
Ian
Melrose, from Ayr in the Southwest of Scotland, belongs to
the cream of Europe's acoustic guitarists. He is an internationally acclaimed
composer and arranger, lead guitarist with Clannad
(World Tour, Grammy Award winning CD "Landmarks"),
and plays with Kerstin in Kelpie
and Talking Water. A major aspect of his work
is solo guitar: based on Celtic finger picking style, his compositions
blend Irish dances, Scottish ballads and classical formats with Brasilian
samba and Argentinian tango to create real World Music on the guitar.
His solo CDs, "Wolves", "Between
the Sighs" and most recently "A Scottish
Legacy" (Acoustic Music Records), have gained him rave reviews
in the international music press.
Special guest on most tours:
Matthias Kießling (keyboard)
from Cottbus / Germany, founder member of Wacholder,
one of Germany's most renowned Folk groups.
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