Share a special evening with two champion Irish musicians from County Galway - the Connemara Lads, who are visiting Iowa on a unique AgArts Farm-to-Artist Residency Program that brings the duo to New Hope Farm, a beautiful diversified working farm, near LaMotte. While learning about Iowa and its agriculture, they will perform in eastern and central Iowa. Enjoy a concert and help support AgArts!
About the Connemara Lads
Conor is well known as a creator of new Irish music and beloved traditional tunes. A diatonic accordionist, he also plays piano, violin and other instruments. Conor has recorded numerous albums of traditional music including Rough and Ready (2015), Oidhreacht (1997) and Cooley’s House (1992 ). His bands have included Arcady with Frances Black, Seán Keane, Four Men and a Dog, The Tulla Céilí Band, and Shaskeen. Conor lived in France in the 1990s and worked as accordionist with legendary Breton singer Gilles Servat. Since then he has toured in America, Canada and throughout Europe, performing in most of the world’s major folk festivals.
Plunkett began playing the Irish tin-whistle at the age of six before progressing to the Irish concert flute. He has played extensively with some of Ireland’s finest traditional musicians such as renowned whistle player Mary Bergin. Plunkett was invited to perform with a team of professional musicians for a premier performance of a specially commissioned suite, ‘Sruth’ at Éigse An Spidéal in 2013. Plunkett recently graduated from University College Cork with a honours degree in music. There he concentrated on performance and became the recipient of both the Dónal Doc Gleeson Award and the Séan Ó Ríada Memorial Prize awarded to the student who displays the deepest understanding of the nature of Irish Traditional.
AgArts is a non-profit designed to imagine and promote healthy food systems through the arts. It seeks to bring farmers and gardeners together with visual, theatre, literary, movement, book and culinary artists to address some of the vital issues and concerns of the contemporary farmscape. AgArts embraces the artistic endeavors of producers and local communities, while allowing artists to celebrate beauty and innovation.