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 piper Finbar Furey.
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 new solo-CD "Valivann" has just won the
renowned German Critics Prize (May 2002) in the field of Worldmusic
/ Folk. 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.
Contact: Thomas Loefke Nehringstr. 33 D-14059 Berlin
e-mail: Loefke@t-online.de
tel: +49 171 271 0944
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