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November 10
O'Rourke's Feast will be performing at the Hopkins Center for the Arts at 7:30pm. More info. here.
November 11
Come celebrate the music of CIM instructor Brian Miller's first solo CD, Minnesota Lumberjack Songs! With guest performer Randy Gosa, at 7:30pm at The Celtic Junction. More details here.
November 13
Cherish the Ladies fiddler Gráinne Murphy, and pianist Kathleen Boyle, are performing at The Celtic Junction at 7pm. More information about this stunning duo here.
November 16
GIVE TO THE MAX day happens once each year, promoting 24 hours of state-wide fundraising in support of Minnesota's non-profits. This event provides the largest day of donations, by far, to CIM's Annual Fund which supports the basic day-to-day activities of our students, instructors and staff. Thank you in advance for your support!
November 17
Come experience an evening of exquisite Irish traditional fiddle and guitar with Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill! In concert at The Celtic Junction, 7:30pm. Click here for more information.
November 19
Don't miss the Monthly Ceili at The Celtic Junction, featuring music by The Twin Cities Ceili Band! 7-10pm.
December 11
Save the date for our Fall Recitals! The format will be similar to past recitals, with performances separated by a celebratory potluck!
February 25, 2012
Save the date for Éigse 2012! Details to come.
June 14-17, 2012
Save the date for our Minnesota Irish Music Weekend! After a much-needed year off, we are very excited to present a new and improved incarnation of our beloved Young Irish Musicians Weekend for all ages! Children and youth will still have their own independent programs with visiting Irish musicians, but due to popular demand we will be expanding the adult programming for the weekend.
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FUNDRAISING VOLUNTEERS REQUESTED
As our fundraising efforts gain momentum, we could use some help with writing thank you cards, tracking donor benefits, etc. If you are interested, please contact Lisa Forrette, CIM Fundraising Director.
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CHECK OUT AND LISTEN TO OUR SESSION TUNES & COMMON REPERTOIRE PAGE!
This is a valuable learning tool for ALL of our students! We encourage you to visit this site often. The site has both slow and fast recordings of some of the most commonly taught songs at CIM. Along with the recordings is the sheet music for the tune. Thanks to Brian Miller and Shawn McBurnie for working hard to get this information available to our students! To access this page, click here.
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The Center For Irish Music is on Facebook!
As of Nov. 3, we have 1,451 Fans! WOW! Become a fan of the Center for Irish Music on Facebook to share ideas, keep up-to-date on current CIM events, and share your love of Irish music with the larger Irish community!
And tell your friends, too!
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CIM has a LinkedIn group and we encourage CIM members to contact each other via this social networking site.
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As always, we welcome your feedback and comments. Please feel free to contact us at any time at:
The Center for Irish Music
@The Celtic Junction
836 Prior Avenue North
St. Paul, MN 55104
651-815-0083
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| Exciting Changes at CIM
As The Center for Irish Music approaches its eighth anniversary, I would like to announce some important changes that have taken place in the past few months including a new administrative assistant, changes in our volunteer team, a new logo and a new home for the CIM at the Celtic Junction. It's a truly exciting time at the Center for Irish Music!
Administrative assistance...
I am thrilled to introduce you to our new administrative assistant, Erika Nelson, who has started working with Emily this week. Erika's role will be to administer private and group classes and support our volunteer staff team of Emily (operations, events & networking), Jeanne (bookkeeper), Lisa Forrette (fundraising) and Shawn McBurnie (website).
Originally from Wisconsin, Erika has recently relocated to the Twin Cities from New York where she worked as a program assistant for ArtsConnection and as a freelance modern dancer. Erika grew up singing in choirs and playing the piano and is excited to learn more about Irish music. You can see her perform at various dance venues throughout the Twin Cities.
Erika can't wait to meet everyone; please introduce yourself next time you're in the office.
Changes on the team...
Some members of the community have been worried that Emily is leaving, but this is definitely (and thankfully) not the case! With the rapid growth of the school in the past few years, the responsibilities of administrator have far outgrown a reasonable volunteer capacity. Once Erika is trained in, Emily's focus will shift from daily administration to networking, events and outreach. The hope is that her volunteer workload will lessen.
This expansion of our administrative team is a clear sign that our little school is thriving and becoming increasingly financially stable. It seems fitting at this time to personally extend my deepest gratitude to Jeanne and Emily for the hundreds of highly skilled hours they have volunteered to keep the school alive and thriving over the past three years. The CIM would not be what it is without the intelligence, passion and generosity of these two amazing women. Thank you Emily and Jeanne for your key role in getting the CIM over this hump!
I would also like to publicly thank our fundraising director, Lisa Forrette who, in less than a year, has set up a comprehensive year-round fundraising program for the Center for Irish Music. Her expertise and work over the past year has significantly increased the financial contributions to the school, which has no doubt given us the confidence to hire on an administrative assistant. Due to changes in her work schedule, Lisa will be scaling back on her volunteer contributions to the school, but we will continue to benefit from the fundraising template she has designed for us. We also look forward to hearing her sing more gorgeous songs in Irish with the extra time she will hopefully have to work on her singing.
Introducing a new logo...
Announcing a fresh new version of our logo! I have been working with graphic designer Sara Specht to clean up the lines in the original logo that Nick Lethert designed with Kate back in 2005. We hope you like it. Music bags and t-shirts with the new logo will be available in the next few months.
Moving to a new part of the Celtic Junction...
As many of you surely aware by now, The Center for Irish Music will soon have a new home in the upstairs of The Celtic Junction's renovated space. In their unfailing support of the Center for Irish Music, Natalie and Cormac have built a beautiful new space for the school. Our new facility boasts more rooms, bigger rooms with windows, sound proof walls and increased storage space, all of which will increase the potential programs we can offer at the school. The exact moving date is still to be announced, but it will likely be around Thanksgiving time.
Thank you for reading to the end and for being a part of the Center for Irish Music.
Norah Rendell
Executive Director
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~~~~New Recordings by CIM Instructors~~~~
Down the Green Fields
síos fá thaobh an ghleanna
Brian Miller's Chicago-based band, Bua, has just released their newest CD, Down the Green Fields! With Devin Shepherd adding his own fiddle style to this new Bua line-up, you won't want to miss this recording. Debuting the CD on a short tour this November, be sure to check out their web page for any and all tour dates in your area. Bua will be bringing their new tunes to the Twin Cities in February of 2012 at a concert at The Celtic Junction. To listen to sample tracks from the CD or to purchase, please check out their page on CD Baby. We look forward to welcoming the band here soon!
L to R: Devin Shepherd, Sean Gavin, Brían Ó hAirt, & Brian Miller
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We need your help!
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The hallway of our new space,
still under construction
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As we prepare to move into our new space at The Celtic Junction, there are a few things for which we'd like to ask your help! VOLUNTEER MOVERS
If you will be in the Twin Cities over the Thanksgiving break, we could use your help with moving our bigger furniture and office items over to our new space. We will, of course, be checking in with The Celtic Junction to make sure that all of the finishing touches are in place by then to allow for our move, but if you could lend a hand we would really appreciate it. If you are able to help with our move, please e-mail Emily and we'll give you more details.
FURNITURE AND SUPPLIES NEEDED
As our square footage grows, so too does our furniture and supply needs! If you have any of the following items that are in really good shape that you are interested in donating to CIM, please let us know.
- Large lockable metal filing cabinets
- Foldable 8' round tables
- Medium-sized wooden children's chairs (for 6-10 year olds), armless
- Full-length mirrors
- Supply cabinets
- Heavy-duty shelving units (for instrument storage)
- L-shaped desks
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More photos from The Harvest Home Traditional Irish Music Weekend
These wonderful photos were taken by Pat O'Loughlin of Sandhill Photography throughout our Harvest Home weekend. Many thanks to Pat and to our photogenic artists and students! John Kelly, James Kelly, Maighread Ni Dhomhnaill, Dáithí Sproule
 Children's singing workshop with Maighread Ni Dhomhnaill
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