Lunasa, dubbed the hottest Irish acoustic band on the planet, will make a stop at Kutztown University’s Schaeffer Auditorium on Friday at 7:30 p.m. as part of the KU Presents! Performing Artists series.
Founded in 1997, the six-member band has toured throughout the world; their latest album is “Live in Kyoto” (2024). The players are known for their complex arrangements of traditional and original music, their impeccable musical chops and their collaborations with artists from outside the genre, such as Mary Chapin Carpenter and Bruce Springsteen.
Cillian Vallely, who plays the uilleann pipes, said they will be bringing vocalist Dave Curley as a guest for their winter tour. Curley, who is also a multi-instrumentalist, was formerly part of the band Slide.
While it will not be a Christmas show, Vallely said, “A lot of the songs have winter themes, and we will do a wee bit of holiday music and tunes from the Breton tradition.”
Vallely, who has lived in New York City for about 30 years, is originally from the town of Armagh in Northern Ireland, where his parents, Brian and Eithne Vallely, have run the Armagh Pipers Club, a school for Irish music, since 1966.
“My mother is from Donegal in the northwest and comes from generations of musicians, mostly fiddle players,” he said. “My father is from Armagh, and he’s a well-known (visual) artist but started the pipes in the ’60s. He’s a real organizer type and he got a club together to teach the pipes, and it has expanded to include many other instruments. It was all volunteers; at any one time there are 250 students, mostly children but also some adults.”
Eithne, a school teacher, also presided over the publication of “tutor books” for Irish music, which are still in print and have been used all over the world by students of Irish folk music.
Vallely and his four siblings all learned to play the pipes, but Vallely was the only one to stick with the instrument, which he said is known for being obstreperous.
“The pipes require a lot of work, outside of playing them,” he said. “They have seven reeds and about 300 parts that come apart with a change in climate. You’re always messing with them; it’s like having a used car. A lot of people give up on it.”
At first, he didn’t intend to make music his career. He was an avid runner and was planning to continue that in college in Lubbock, Texas, but after an injury sidelined him, he began playing his pipes again. He dropped out of college and played gigs in Dallas and San Antonio and spent five months playing in a pub in New Orleans. Returning to England to finish a degree in business, he found “I had no interest in it,” and went back to the U.S., where he has devoted himself to music ever since.
After paying his dues by performing with various bands and as a sideman on recordings, he joined Lunasa in 1999 at the same time as flutist Kevin Crawford, and they have been members ever since, along with founders Hutchinson (bass) and Sean Smyth (fiddle). The newer members are fiddler Colin Farrell and guitarist Ed Boyd.
Tickets for Lunasa are $39 for adults, $37 for seniors and $19 for students. Tickets can be purchased at www.KutztownPresents.org or by calling the KU Presents! Box Office between 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Tuesday through Thursday, at 610-683-4092.
Movies
The second film in the Reading Jewish Film Series, “Charles Grodin: Rebel With a Cause,” will be shown on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the GoggleWorks Center for the Arts, 201 Washington St.
Tickets are $10 for general admission and $8 for seniors (55 and older), military, first responders and students.
The documentary highlights Grodin’s life and work, both as a professional actor and comedian as well as his personal work to get wrongly convicted people released from prison.
Raised in a Jewish household in Pittsburgh, Grodin’s life embodied the concept of Tikkun Olam, repairing the world. The film not only celebrates Grodin’s hilarious acting career, but also his remarkable, decades-long, successful fight to get wrongly convicted people, most of whom were mothers of color with young children, out of prison.
The film includes interviews with Robert De Niro, Steve Martin, Martin Short, Elaine May, Carol Burnett, Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, Alan Arkin, Ellen Burstyn, Marc Maron, Lewis Black, Marlo Thomas, Jon Lovitz, plus several of the women Grodin got released from prison.
