Tue 6/16 @ 7:30PM

Wed 6/17 @ 7:30PM

Sat 6/20 @ 4PM & 7:30PM

Sun 6/21 @ 3PM & 7PM

Every summer for years, Cleveland’s baroque ensemble Apollo’s Fire has taken their music outdoors for their “Countryside Concerts” that are less formal than those of their regular season series. Instead of classical music, they draw entirely on folk traditions, usually Celtic, and perform the music on their period instruments.

Their new program, called “Echoes of Ireland,” will be led by eight musicians who will follow the trail of Turlough O’Carolan—a blind harpist who traveled around 18th-century Ireland, performing at weddings and funerals with appropriately sad or joyful music. Musicians include fiddler (and director) Alan Choo; vocalist Sam Kreidenweis; harpist/vocalist Anna O’Connell; fiddler/vocalist Caitlin Hedge; cellist René Schiffer; guitar and theorbo player William Simms; piper, Irish flutist, whistle player and dancer Brian Bigney; and recorder, flute, oboe, whistle and harp player Luke Conklin.

They perform at the Avon Lake Church of Christ on Tuesday June 16; at the Bath Church UCC in Akron on Wednesday June 17; and at Holden Arboretum in Kirtland on Saturday June 20 and Sunday June 21. Go here for tickets.

apollosfire/echoes-of-ireland/