Sunday March 8 at 19:30 in McMahon Hall, 1145 De Salaberry

A culture is often defined by its music, language and traditions that are passed down from one generation to the next. This presentation will discuss the role and importance of Irish music in Canada, featuring performances and analysis of specific examples. Traditional music plays a pivotal role in the maintenance of lifeworlds of Irish settlers and their ancestors. Drawing on interviews, transcription analyses, and archival recordings, this talk focuses on performance histories of past and present Irish musicians and explores the cultural memory and collective sense of place that give musical meaning to the pieces these musicians perform. Kate will also investigate the centuries of technological change and how it has affected the recording, performance, and appreciation of Irish traditional music.

Newfoundland-born Kate Bevan-Baker holds violin performance degrees from Memorial and McGill Universities, and a PhD specializing in Irish Music on PEI from Concordia University where she was a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Scholar. She was the winner of Concordia University’s Doctoral Thesis Defense Award in 2018, and the recipient of the inaugural Rhona Richman Kenneally Award for the top PhD paper at the Canadian Association for Irish Studies conference in 2018. Kate’s music performance career has taken her to Russia, across Canada twice with the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, to China for the 2010 World Expo with rock band Hey Rosetta!, the 2010 JUNO Awards performing with Michael Bublé, as well as playing with symphony orchestras and chamber groups across Canada. Kate is a founding member of the Newfoundland-based ECMA-nominated traditional band, The Dardanelles, and currently plays fiddle and sings with the Montreal-based Celtic trio, Solstice. She has been featured on many nation-wide radio and television broadcasts, and can be heard on over thirty CDs, videogame, and movie soundtracks. Kate currently lives in Montreal where she balances and active performance and teaching schedule.