A Celtic Evening in Mattapoisett

An evening of Celtic music at the Mattapoisett Museum with Mark Roberts and Benedict Gagliardi!

Mattapoisett native, Mark Roberts discovered traditional  music by being an annoying teenager hanging around at the Tryworks Coffeehouse and SMU's Eistedfod Festival. In his current role as an annoying adult (especially to his Teenaged son, Fenton) Mark is primarily known as a flute and banjo player but is also comfortable playing guitar, bouzouki and percussion. He has been in a number of groundbreaking bands in Traditional Music including: The Red Clay Ramblers, Touchstone, The Sevens, The Clayfoot Strutters and Childsplay.His flute and pennywhistle feature prominently in the film, Secret of Roan Innish.

Benedict Gagliardi is a Rhode Island-based musician and folksinger and one-half of the duo "The Vox Hunters" with his partner Armand Aromin. A self-taught instrumentalist, he plays traditional tunes and accompanies old songs on Anglo concertina, harmonica, and tenor guitar and is particularly fond of digging through old archives and tune books for unusual material. He leads social singing events and supports community music in the Providence area and is locally recognized as a strong tradition-bearer in his generation.

Mark and Benedict are old friends and musical acquaintances. They have shared many a tune in many a session all over New England. This program will feature lots of traditional instrumental music, mostly of an Irish nature but with some other widely flung musical traditions thrown in for good measure. As a gifted singer Ben will be dipping into his vast repertoire of songs familiar and obscure. They are excited to be performing together as a duo for the first time at the Mattapoisett Museum.

Guests are invited to bring their own instruments to participate in an Irish jam session to close out the evening.