Celtic fiddler Eileen Ivers will perform tonight at Memorial Hall. Daily Tar Heel staff writer Lindsay Saladino spoke with Ivers on Monday about her tour and her music. Ivers’ responses have been edited for space.
Daily Tar Heel: Why did you start playing music?
Eileen Ivers: I started playing fiddle when I was around 8 years old. I totally loved the instrument as a kid. My parents are both from County Mayo, in the west of Ireland, and they kind of wanted me and my sister to pick something of Irish up, whether it be dancing or the music.
ATTEND THE PERFORMANCE
Time: 7:30 p.m. today
Location: Memorial Hall
Info: carolinaperformingarts.org
DTH: How did your group form?
Ivers: We formed about 10 years ago after I toured with Riverdance for about three years. I left Riverdance in late ’98, ’99 and formed Immigrant Soul.
Basically, they were people I knew in the music scene in New York. There are some traditional musicians in the group.
They are very passionate performers, and they are incredible, each one of them truly the master of their instrument.
DTH: Are there certain ideas, themes or scenes you are trying to convey in your music?
Ivers: I have been so steeped in the tradition of Irish music.
There are so many relationships with Celtic music and through the years of playing and collaborating with so many different musicians. There is always something I was so intrigued about because there is a huge descent of Irish music in American music, Appalachian bluegrass and French Canadian.
We kind of trace all of this through the narrative of the show in a chronological way where we touch briefly on the pre-famine time in Ireland to the famine to the immigrants leaving and how they brought their music, song, dance, stories with them and how this music really formed the roots of American music and country music. It is historical.
DTH: How does the multimedia aspect work into that?
Ivers: We shot 17 hours of high-def footage in Ireland alone. (It contains) a showcase of the famine, pre-famine, all the way to the present time. We are working on arrangements, where we are showing the audience how vibrant the tradition is and how healthy it is at the moment.
At times it is very traditional, and at times you can see there is a lot of jamming going on.
DTH: What is one of the coolest experiences you have had on tour?
Ivers: There are always so many, but on this particular tour some of them are the audience reactions. Like last night, we were up in Fairfax, Va. … and I was walking out to the lobby and this 4-year-old little guy, Deckland, just comes running over, left his parents and his sister, and gave me the biggest hug ever and was like “I want to be like Eileen Ivers.”
If that gets to kids who want to learn this music instead of playing in front of the Wii or Xbox forever, that is really, really fantastic.
Hopefully these songs and tunes that we’re composing are going to be a part of the body of the traditional work that is handed down to the next generation. It is a very real experience from the heart and soul of the people who live it.
Contact the Arts Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.
