Through the years, the Washington region has always welcomed Celtic celebrations of the holidays. An upcoming one featuring Karen Ashbrook and Paul Oorts joined by Grammy-nominated fiddler Andrea Hoag and the extraordinary voice of Eileen Estes captured my attention, and I want to highlight it for area readers. The venue is Church of the Ascension in Silver Spring, where Ascension and The Folklore Society of Greater Washington are sponsoring this concert on Tuesday, December 19th.

As I wrote when I first heard Ashbrook on Thanksgiving Day in 2008, Church of the Ascension is a small Gothic church that is acoustically alive, providing a nice setting for “the sparkling strings of hammered dulcimer, cittern, and harp guitar” blending with “rich harmonies and driving melodies on fiddle and accordion.” The program promises to include “toe-tapping dance tunes and haunting vocals of seasonal ballads and meditative airs from the shores of the many Celtic nations.”

Ashbrook “has been an international pioneer and advocate in the revival of the hammered dulcimer” for more than four decades. In addition, she plays the Irish wooden flute and pennywhistle and performs frequently as KA/PO with her husband Paul Oorts, a multi-instrumentalist from Belgium. 

There are a number of videos of the duo playing Celtic music, if not necessarily holiday selections, on YouTube. I’ll showcase a few to whet the appetite, beginning with Fallen Heroes of Waterloo from their Celtic Cafe project.

Ashbrook plays the wonderfully titled Good Morning to Your Nightcap from the Hills of Erin album.

One of our favorite tunes is The Water is Wide, which Ashbrook performs on her Starry Starry album.

Oorts accompanies Karen on a Sedgwick harp guitar in concert at the 5th Annual Harp Guitar Gathering on October 28, 2007. They title this set The Belle & the Butler and it includes the tunes Sandy River Belle and the Butlers of Glen Avenue.

During the pandemic, KA/PO recorded a concert for the Washington Free Public Library in Western Maryland for the library’s “Noteworthy Sundays” series. It captures some the range of their musical interests.

Finally, the Kennedy Center recorded the duo’s Millennium Stage concert in May of 2013 as they represented Belgium at the European Union Showcase. This is another concert-length video you may find of interest.

In addition to the Silver Spring venue, the quartet will perform this show in Shepherdstown, WV on December 16th and in Burke, VA on the 17th.

Enjoy!

More to come . . .

DJB

Photo of Karen Ashbrook and Paul Oorts credit KarenAshbrook.com (copyright 2014 Michael G. Stewart)