PUTNEY — Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music present an evening of Celtic music by Kalos (Jeremiah McLane, Eric McDonald, and Ryan McKasson), with bagpiper Dan Houghton and harpist Rachel Clemente, on Friday, Nov. 5, at 7:30 p.m.
Kalos is described in a news release as “a trio of interpreters and composers of Celtic roots music [that] explores the dark corners floating on its edges, delivering an alluring musical complexity full of spontaneity and joyful exuberance.”
“McDonald, McKasson, and McLane draw from a range of influences to create a sound compelling enough to transcend boundaries and appeal to music lovers of all stripes,” the description continues.
The youngest fiddler ever to win the U.S. National Scottish Fiddle Championship, McKasson has since performed and recorded with numerous influential musicians, including fellow Scottish fiddle champion Hanneke Cassel and fiddle/cello duo Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas.
Guitarist/vocalist McDonald found his way to traditional music through the music scene in Boston, and he tours with the Scottish trio Cantrip, award-winning singer/songwriter Connor Garvey, and others.
After earning a master's degree from the New England Conservatory, accordionist McLane formed two bands - The Clayfoot Strutters and Nightingale - in the early 1990s.
He has recorded more than a dozen CDs with Nightingale, the Clayfoot Strutters, Bob and the Troubadours, Le Bon Vent, and Ruthie Dornfeld, and he has composed music for theater and film, including Sam Shepard's A Lie of the Mind.
While firmly rooted in the fertile ground of Scottish traditional music, harpist Clemente and piper Houghton's “gritty, avant-garde musical interpretations put them at the forefront of Celtic folk musicians in New England,” the news release describes. Both avid tunesmiths, their repertoire features many original compositions as well as traditional melodies.
Clemente won the title of U.S. National Scottish Harp Champion in 2016 and graduated from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow with a bachelor's degree in traditional Scottish music two years later.
Scottish piper, flautist, and DADGAD guitarist Houghton has won numerous competitions, including the Lowland and Border Pipers' Society Open Borderpipes and New Composition events and the St. Chartier Maître de Cornemuse.
He has toured and taught extensively throughout Britain, Europe, Ireland, America, Asia, and the Antipodes, performing as a soloist as well as in various ensembles, including Cantrip, the Salsa fusion band Salsa Celtica, A Parcel of Rogues, Celtic rock band Prydein, and Piper's Den.