Lexington, Ky. - How do you persuade a world renowned, multi-Grammy award winning band to fly to Lexington, Kentucky and perform, pro bono?
You pull a "Kentucky."
The Commonwealth's "small world, friend-of-a-friend" culture is often compared to that of Ireland. Indeed, Kentucky horse country is home to a large Irish-American community.
Its members include Pearse Lyons, the founder and president of the company serving as title sponsor of the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. And back in his home country of Ireland, Dr. Lyons has a brother, John, who counts among his friends an acquaintance of Paddy Moloney, who just happens to be a founding member of The Chieftains, credited widely as the group that brought traditional Irish music to the world stage some 48-years ago.
During that half-century, they have performed with everyone from Luciano Pavorotti, the Rolling Stones, Van Morrison, Mark Knopfler and Ry Cooder to Elvis Costello, Nanci Griffith, SinÈad O'Connor, Natalie Merchant, Art Garfunkel, Sting, Rosanne Cash, Ziggy Marley, Lyle Lovett, Jackson Browne, Madonna, Bela Fleck, Earl Scruggs and Ricky Skaggs.
Imagine
The Times They Are a Changin'
Further evidence of the Chieftains' expansive interest in fusion can be found on , the latest album from jazz great Herbie Hancock. The Chieftains join Hancock in a meditation on Bob Dylan's .
And after a concert in Lexington, they will add the childrens choir Haitian Harmony to that list.
The Chieftains, their travel expenses covered by Alltech, are taking the stage of the University of Kentucky's Singletary Center this evening as part of the Alltech Fortnight Festival with proceeds from Chieftain concert ticket sales devoted to Dr. Lyons' initiatives in Haiti.
The Irish group will be joined on the stage of UK's Singletary Center by two-dozen children from the
Centre Educatif l'Union des Coeurs in Ouanaminthe, Haiti who were brought to the United States and Lexington last week by Lyons to participate in programming associated with Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games - including a performance with the famed Irish band.
"We are going to perform together, and Ronan Tynan, the great Irish tenor, is going to join in at the end," said The Chieftain's Moloney, who is no stranger to the concept of fusing cultural genres. "In my teens I was listening to Chinese music and loving it. I listened to all kinds of music," he recalled in a telephone interview from Ireland. "A friend of mine had a party. He had invited this Chinese girl and she was singing and I would repeat the songs that she sang. They couldn't understand how I could remember these songs. I've always had a great flare and love for all kinds of music from around the world."
Monday's concert will also have woven into its multi-genre tapestry strands of Canadian (The Pilatzke Brothers), Scottish (Alyth McCormack), Nashville (Deanie Richardson) and even local music including The McTeggart Irish Dancers and The United Pipe and Drum Band.
"For our ending piece, we invite the audience to do this kind of snake dance that goes around the hall. We've done it at Carnegie many times. It's called An Dro. I think it's going to be a good, fun show," said Moloney.
Trained by Professor of Voice and Director of Opera at the University of Kentucky Dr. Everett McCorvey, Eric Brown, the first winner of the Alltech vocal scholarship competition, and fellow UK voice graduate student Manuel Castillo, the children of Haitian Harmony have also performed at the opening ceremonies of the Games.
The philosophy behind the formation of the choir, according to Alltech officials, is "to provide the boys and girls from Ouanaminthe with the best education for a better future." The program was inspired by "El Sistema," a youth outreach program that brings musical education to some of the world's most underprivileged children. The children will perform their repertoire of songs in Creole, French and English.
The choir has been touring Kentucky, acting as ambassadors for and raising awareness of life in their Caribbean home, the poorest nation in the western hemisphere, most recently devastated by a major earthquake.
Tickets for tonight's concert are $45 for general admisson; $100 for premium seating and an after-show VIP reception. They can be purchased online at http://www.singletarytickets.com.
For information about the Alltech Sustainable Haiti Project, go to http://www.alltech.com/en_US/about/social/haitifund/Pages/default.aspx