Shades of Green

Late winter is traditionally one of the busiest times of the year for Celtic musicians. Venues are booking acts for St. Patrick’s Day shows, and guitarists, fiddlers, pipers, and others are getting called in for various sessions and events. Fortunately for our musical family, four members of our folk faculty –  Liz Faiella, Dan Faiella, Audrey Budington, and Jordan Tirrell-Wysocki – devote significant time and energy each year towards developing programming presented here at the Music School.

The four musicians are also CCMS alumni and their genuine friendship, respect, and admiration for each other is readily apparent. “The fact that all four of us grew up playing music together as students and friends through the Music School and are now doing the same as colleagues here is just so remarkable and really speaks to the nurturing environment of the school, says Budington. “Now we greet each other in the hallways and drop in to each other’s studios for the odd jam between lessons. Where else but CCMS would you ever find a place so kind and wonderful that former students want to come back to teach? We’re so, so lucky.”

The capstone performances for these friends and in-demand Celtic musicians are this March Bach’s Lunches. This annual tradition highlights the CCMS folk faculty and celebrates the traditions of Celtic music from around the world.  On March 6, Dan Faiella will present a lecture on the history of the beloved Anglo-Celtic folk song “John Barleycorn.”  One week later, the Celtic quartet takes the stage for the annual pre-St. Patrick’s Day celebration known as “A Celtic Journey.”  Bach’s Lunches are free, open to the public, and made possible in part through the generous support of the Walker Fund.

“Performing in these shows is a blast,” says Folk Faculty Chair Liz Faiella. “The audience’s energy is wonderful, and I love that we get to have basically a giant party in the recital hall midday on a Thursday!”

“The exciting thing for me about folk music is how it connects you with the recent and the distant past, but also how it connects you with other traditions that influence your own,” adds Dan Faiella.

The carefully curated setlist for the March 13 performance is still being finalized. It has traditionally included Irish classics, New England contradance pieces, and tunes from Cape Breton, Brittany (a Celtic region of France), and beyond. The quartet ensures that people will hear music they know, love, and associate with St. Patrick’s Day, along with a handful of lesser-known pieces.  

The Faiella siblings, Budington, and Tirrell-Wysocki also grew up in the same musical ecosystem, logging tunes and developing technique within the central New Hampshire folk scene. As a result, there is palpable intuition between the performers which allows for the creativity and spontaneity on display during the annual Bach’s lunch sets. The instrumentation of the group is also unique in folk/Celtic circles – often times there is just one fiddler who holds the responsibility of carrying the melody within a folk group. With Budington, Tirrell-Wysocki, and Liz Faiella all playing fiddle, it allows the quartet to explore variations, countermelodies, harmonies, and rhythms that they wouldn’t otherwise have the freedom to play. And Dan Faiella’s ability to seamlessly switch between chords and melody gives the quartet a nuanced, unique sound.

Fans of the talented quartet will have additional opportunities to hear their music via the recently-launched “New England Roots and Branches” Series, which celebrates New England’s unique and beautiful folk music tradition. This three-part series, which is free and open to the public, is made possible in part through a Folklife and Traditional Arts grant from the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts.  

“The series is a wonderful opportunity for the four of us to do more together than the 50 minutes a year that we get at the Bach’s Lunch,” says Tirrell-Wysocki. “We get to explore various sides of New England fiddle music and even more importantly, we get to share the music with a wider circle of musicians since each concert is preceded by a jam session. This is folk music – it’s meant to be a community experience!”

“Roots and Branches” kicked off on January 25, 2025 with a Contradance Music session at Concord’s Citywide Community Center.  The performance space was filled to capacity,  with fans spilling out into the venue’s corridors.  The next event in the series will be held at CCMS on Saturday, April 5. Titled “Transatlantic Tunes: Celtic and British Isles Folk Tunes,” the session will celebrate European folk music and feature a beginner-friendly slow jam, a concert, and a fast jam following the show.

“My hope with this series is to build appreciation of (and participation in!) the really rich musical tradition we have here in New Hampshire,” says Liz Faiella. “Folk music can be such a social experience, and I’d love for people to get the chance to connect in that way, both with each other and with this tradition, no matter where they are on their musical journeys.”