New CIM Logo
In This Issue:
We want to hear from you! CIM Survey
Minnesota Irish Music Weekend Photos
Register now for summer camps!
Brian Miller at the Smithsonian
Upcoming Events
 
Thursday, July 10
Todd Menton brings his rousing tunes to the Dubliner Pub from 9pm to 12am.

Irish Fair of Minnesota Padelford Boat Cruise featuring the Eddies, the HiB's and the Sweet Colleens from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 per person.
 
Sunday, July 13 

Chad McAnally Benefit House Concert 

3617 14th Ave S. Minneapolis, MN at 3 p.m. Tickets are $20 per person.

Proceeds will help Chad travel to Ireland to the 2014 Fleadh Cheoil in August. 

612-968-4222 or email[email protected]. For more information about his trip, visit www.crowdtilt.com.

 
Wednesday, July 16
Brian Miller & Randy Gosa bring their "Traditional Songs of the Northwoods" program to the Park Grove Library in Cottage Grove at 6:30pm.
 
Saturday, July 19
CIM Summer Performance Ensemble at the Highland Fest with O'Shea Irish Dance.  12:00-12:45pm.

Head over to the Celtic Junction for an Irish ceili dance from 7-10pm.  Irish social dancing and live music by the Twin Cities Ceili Band.

Friday, July 25
O'Rourke's Feast will debut their new CD at a concert at the Celtic Junction.  Time TBA.
Follow this link to CIM's

As we look forward to planning the CIM's 10th anniversary term this fall, we are checking in with our students and families about their experience at the school. 

Our goal is to gather feedback from our students, both past and current, about CIM programming and learn more about how CIM communicates with its constituents.

Thank you for taking a few minutes to complete this anonymous survey.  
 
Your feedback will help us continue to offer high quality traditional Irish music programs and events for many years to come.  

Go raibh m�le maith agat.


CIM's birthday party will be on Sunday, August 24th at 4pm at the Celtic Junction
 
CIM VIDEO TELLS OUR STORY
Promo video screen shot  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
We are excited to share with you our new promotional video, made in celebration of CIM's tenth anniversary. Thank you to Steve Flynn of GoodLooking Films for helping us bring the story of the Center for Irish Music to a wider audience.  Please take a few minutes to watch the video and share it with your friends and family.  You might even be featured in the video! 
Support CIM Every Time you Shop!

Each time you shop Amazon.com, you can help raise money for CIM!  Simply click on the following link and save it in your bookmarks. That way, every time you shop you'll be brought directly to our Amazon smile site.  Happy shopping and thank you for supporting The Center for Irish Music.  

'Like' CIM on Facebook!
FB page screen grab
The CIM has a very active Facebook page.  Please join us there for the most up-to-date announcements, posts related to traditional Irish music, and upcoming events.

CIM has a 
YouTube Channel
Click below to view videos of many public performances by CIM ensembles at the Irish Fair of MN, St. Patrick's Day events, local coffee shops, and summer fairs.

 
LinkedIn logo
CIM has a LinkedIn group and we encourage CIM members to contact each other via this social networking site.
 

                                           Above photo of the BWCA courtesy of Patrick Maun


Dear CIM community, 

First and foremost, I would like to thank everyone who was a part of the Minnesota Irish Music Weekend 2014.  It was an inspiring weekend on every possible level.  Personally, I am grateful to be part of a community that cares so deeply about traditional Irish music that it can support a weekend like MIM.  It is a ton of work to put it together, but this year's event was a true team effort led by Jeanne Morales, Lisa Richardson and a highly-motivated group of lead volunteers (which included board members, instructors and instructors).  Thanks also to Tom Klein for his work getting the visas for 5 artists.  Our government makes it a significant challenge to bring artists in from out of the country, but we managed it this year again!!

All of our visiting artists were genuinely impressed by our small and mighty organization, our volunteers, staff, instructors and students!  The Twin Cities has a long-standing history of a vibrant traditional music scene and it is exciting to see how the Center for Irish Music is helping to keep the tradition growing and thriving.  I'd like to extend gratitude to the taxpayers of Minnesota for the Legacy grant funding we received and also our community partners and donors.  Many of you are not hands-on, but your support makes a difference and helps enable our work.

Summer term has begun, the halls are filled with songs and tunes and we will be out in the community performing this summer at the Irish Fair of Minnesota (with Altan, Two Tap Trio and the HiB's as well!), Highland Art Fair and other places.

Mark your calendars for the August 24th Open House and 10-year anniversary celebration right here at the Celtic Junction.  It will include a session, performances by some of our ensembles, demo classes and more!  
Have a wonderful 4th of July weekend and I hope to see you soon!
  
--Norah Rendell,  CIM Executive Director
MIM 2012 Logo  

    
Catherine McEvoy, Daithi Sproule, John Blake, John McEvoy, and Oisin Mac Diarmada
Iain Dove-Lempke teaches students in the beginner youth program a tune

Students in the advanced teen program play in an outdoor session as part of the Great Session Experience
Adult students take part in a song workshop led by Rita Gallagher
Click here to view a photo album of more pics from the MIM weekend.
Thank you for an incredible weekend of music!
 
Local students as well as 8 students from Wisconsin, Maryland, Massachusetts, Canada, Washington, Kansas, and California gathered over the weekend of June 13-15 to make music, learn from local and visiting artists, and attend the master concert.   
 
Endless thanks go to our visiting artists, our local and regional teaching staff, all of you who attended workshops and the concert, the MIM planning committee, our dedicated volunteers, and the Celtic Junction. We certainly made this a weekend to remember!
 
MIM Stats:
  • 135 students participated
  • 6 simultaneous sessions on Friday night with attendance of over 100!
  • 200+ at the master concert on Saturday
  • 80% of all waste generated was recycled or composted


 
 
  

 
There's still space in our summer camps!
Intro to Irish Harp Campers 2013

Register now for our fun, creative, physically active and educational music camps. With a central location at The Celtic Junction, near to the beautiful Newell Park, our CIM camps include a daily jaunt outside to relax in the fresh summer air.

Introduction to the Irish Harp
(Ages 8-12) July 21-25 - need 1 more
 
Playing Together - An Introduction to Ensemble Playing (Ages 7-12)
August 25-29 - FULL
 
REGISTER HERE

Brian MIller's 
Adventures
at the
American
Folklife 
Center in DC
Last month, CIM instructor Brian Miller found out that he is a 2014 recipient of the AFC's Parsons Fund Award.  This allowed him to travel to Washington, D.C. to do research at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.
 
From Brian Miller:

The Library of Congress' American Folklife Center Archive is one of the largest collections of ethnographic materials from the United States. The Archive holds millions of items including vast numbers of recordings, manuscripts and letters relating to traditional folksong. Recently, the American Folklife Center chose me, along with another lucky researcher, for their 2014 Gerald E. and Corinne L. Parsons Fund Award. The Parsons Award allowed me to spend an entire week at the end of June delving into archival materials relating to Irish-influenced folksong traditions that once thrived among lumberjacks and Great Lakes sailors here in the Upper Midwest.

 

While at the AFC, I sifted through an incredible collection of over 3000 letters dating from the 1920s between song collector Robert Winslow Gordon and singers (and other collectors--both "professional" and amateur) spread around the US and Canada. Gordon (who founded the AFC Archive in 1928) ran a biweekly column in a popular pulp magazine where he published traditional songs sent in by readers. The letters sent in to Gordon gave me a deeper understanding of the generation of singers who grew up in the late 1800s when song traditions that have since died out were still thriving. There were also a few revealing letters between Minnesota singer Michael C. Dean and Gordon. Some of you know that Dean is the Irish-American lumberman/bartender/singer I have been researching for years now.

 

I also listened to several hours of amazing recordings from Beaver Island, Michigan. This remote island in northern Lake Michigan was home to many Irish whose families came from Arranmore - another island off the northwest coast of Donegal. The Beaver Island singers had wonderful songs and an ornamented style of singing immediately recognizable as having Irish roots. I am already at work learning some of these Beaver Island songs! 
 
For more about my trip and the rich information and music I came home with, watch my column Northwoods Songs in the Irish Music and Dance Association newsletter as well as the blog version (including videos of me singing songs) available here: http://www.evergreentrad.com/northwoods-songs/
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836 Prior Avenue North
St. Paul, MN  55104
651-815-0083
www.centerforirishmusic.org