Six-Time Grammy Award Winners, The Chieftains, Perform with Special Guests
Aliso Viejo, CA – Paddy Moloney, the Chieftains, and special guests perform at Soka Performing Arts Center on Sunday, February 25, 2018, at 7:00 p.m. Tickets are $60 for adults; $48 for students, seniors, and active military families; and $45 each for groups of 10 or more. Purchase tickets online or by calling 949-480-4ART (4278).
Together for more than fifty-five years and recognized for reinventing traditional Irish music on a contemporary and international scale, the six-time Grammy Award winners’ music remains as fresh and relevant as when they first began. The Chieftains were formed in 1962 by Paddy Moloney from the ranks of the top folk musicians in Ireland. In addition to Moloney on uilleann pipes and tin whistle, the group now consists of fiddler Seán Keane, bodhrán player and vocalist Kevin Conneff, and flutist Matt Molloy.
The Chieftains have performed with many symphony and folk orchestras worldwide, and have broken numerous musical boundaries by collaborating and performing with some of the biggest names in rock, pop and traditional music in Ireland and around the world. The ability to transcend musical boundaries to blend tradition with modern music has notably hailed them as one of the best known Irish groups in the world. Between 1993 and 1999, the Chieftains won six Grammy awards in categories including Best Traditional Folk Album, Best World Music Album, Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals, and Best Contemporary Folk Album.
In 2012, marking the Chieftains’ 50th anniversary, they were awarded the inaugural National Concert Hall Lifetime Achievement Award at a gala event in Philadelphia hosted by The American Ireland Fund “in recognition of their tremendous contribution to the music industry worldwide and the promotion of the best of Irish culture.” Also in celebration of their 50th anniversary, the Chieftains once again invited friends from all musical styles to collaborate on their album, Voice of Ages. Featuring some of modern music’s fastest rising artists (Bon Iver, The Decemberists and Paolo Nutini among them), the album is proof that their music transcends not only stylistic and traditional boundaries but generational as well.
They have been honored in their own country by being officially named Ireland’s Musical Ambassadors and have been involved in such historic events as being the first Western group to perform on the Great Wall, became the first group to give a concert in the Capitol Building in Washington, DC, and in October of 2001, Moloney performed at a Ground Zero memorial service in New York for the victims of September 11.