The Community Bulletin Board

The group Beoga will join CMU Public Radio’s “Our Front Porch” for three nights of Celtic music in Central and Northern Michigan. Joining Beoga on this Michigan tour is Percussive Dancer Nic Gareiss.

Join us in Harbor Springs Saturday, March 3 at 8 p.m. at the Harbor Springs Performing Arts Center. This performance is co-presented by CMU University Events and the Blissfest Music Organization.

“It speaks volumes about the audiences in Central and Northern Michigan that Beoga contacted me to help them put together three concerts on their way from Ireland to Australia,” said John Sheffler, “Our Front Porch” host and WCMU Director of Radio. “This is a band of five virtuosos who have a great flair for arranging their music and they’ll give us a show that we ALL will think and talk about for months.”

For ticket information, please visit www.wcmu.org or call 231-348-7047 for the Harbor Springs performance.

Beoga is based in County Antrim in the North of Ireland.  Their name is Irish for the word ‘lively.’  Initially collaborating over a jam session in 2002, Beoga includes twin dueling accordions, piano, bodhrán, and fiddle.  Though rooted in Irish tradition, the five-piece group doesn’t hesitate to incorporate other musical styles into their tunes; from bluesy riffs to raunchy New Orleans jamboree, to songs from the days of vaudeville.  Their music always comes back to their own wonderfully bouncy Irish sound. The Wall Street Journal describes them as “the most exciting new traditional band to emerge from Ireland this century.”  Find more information at http://www.beogamusic.com.

Described by the Irish Times as “the human epitome of the unbearable lightness of being” and "the most inventive and expressive step dancer on the scene,” by the Boston Herald, Michigan-born dancer and musician Nic Gareiss has performed as a featured soloist with luminaries such as The Chieftains, Solas, Dervish, Liz Carroll, Bruce Molsky, Alasdair Fraser and Martin Hayes.  His appearances have electrified audiences on both sides of the Atlantic.

This concert will be recorded and broadcasted on “Our Front Porch,” a CMU Public Radio original program. The “Our Front Porch” series is hosted by John Sheffler and features traditional music concerts recorded throughout Central and Northern Michigan.

Other dates of this tour include Thursday, March 1 at 8 p.m. in Mount Pleasant and Friday, March 2 at 7 p.m. in Alpena. For more information, visit www.wcmu.org.

Media interviews with band members and press passes are available upon request.  For more information, contact John Sheffler at 1-800-727-9268 or at sheff1j@cmich.edu.

About WCMU:

A service of Central Michigan University, CMU Public Broadcasting (WCMU) informs and entertains its audience throughout Central and Northern Michigan with programming and services that reflect and respect the cultures of our state and world.

CMU Public Radio is a service of Central Michigan University.  The network serves Central and Northern lower Michigan and the Eastern Upper Peninsula.  In the central counties, tune to WCMU-FM 89.5 Mt. Pleasant.  In the Tri- Cities and Thumb, tune in to WUCX-FM 90.1 Bay City or WWCM-FM 96.9 FM Standish.  In Northern Lower Michigan, tune to WCML-FM 91.7 Alpena, WCMB-FM 95.7 Oscoda, WCMW-FM 103.9 Harbor Springs or 95.1 FM Traverse City. In the Eastern Upper Peninsula, tune to WCMZ-FM 98.3 Sault St. Marie.

CMU Public Television includes WCML Channel 6 Alpena, WCMU Channel 14 Mt. Pleasant, WCMW Channel 21 Manistee, WCMV Channel 27 Cadillac and WCMZ Channel 28 Flint.