TRAD super group String Sisters are rosining their bows as they prepare to unveil their brand new album to a Donegal audience.

 

Featuring six of the world’s top fiddlers and a peerless quartet of piano, guitar, bass and drums, String Sisters blends Nordic and Celtic traditions into a glorious riot of all-encompassing sound. 

 

Formed at Celtic Connections in 1998 by Shetland fiddler Catriona MacDonald, the group has repeatedly rewarded audiences with their unforgettable concerts.

 

The band combines the very considerable talents of Donegal’s own Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh,  Annbjørg Lien from Norway, Catriona MacDonald from Shetland, Sweden’s Emma Härdelin and American duo Liz Carroll and Liz Knowles along with  Tore Bruvollof Norway on guitar, Scotland’s Dave Milligan on piano, Conrad Molleson of Scotland on bass and fellow Scot James Mackintosh on percussion. 

 

String Sisters’s performances and recordings also feature the vocal talents of Emma Härdelin and Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh.

 

String Sisters debut album Live was released in 2007 and was Grammy long-listed.

 

Following a barnstorming concert at 2015’s Celtic Colours in Cape Breton, the band played their only 2016 gig at the prestigious Tønder Festival in Denmark.

 

This Sunday, January 21, the band will play their only Irish performance and launch their eagerly awaited album ‘Between Wind and Water’ in An Grianán Theatre, Lettekenny.

 

Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh has written a new composition that will be premiered on the night by Coirm, the brilliant young group from Letterkenny’s Ceol na Coille traditional music school.

 

The String Sisters gig is part of Letterkenny Trad Week which is essentially seven days of music, singing and general craic.

 

Running from January 20-27, Trad Week kicks off this Friday night with four leading Irish musicians from Arcady, Altan, Dervish and Solas – vocalist Niamh Parsons, fiddler Ciarán Tourish, flautist Liam Kelly and guitar virtuoso John Doyle, at Kinnegar Brewery.

 

The String Sisters will be rocking An Grianán on Sunday before Lau, the pioneering contemporary folk trio comprising three of the UK’s finest traditional musicians – Kris Dreever, Martin Green and Aidan O Rourke play Kinnegar Brewery on Monday 22. 

 

The final concert features the brilliant Irish accordion player Sharon Shannon and her band at An Grianán Theatre on Saturday 28.

 

All concerts start at 8pm and tickets can be booked at An Grianán Theatre on 00353 74 9120777, or online at http://www.angrianan.com

 

Letterkenny Trad Week is organised by Regional Cultural Centre Letterkenny and An Grianán Theatre, in association with Earagail Arts Festival, Donegal County Council Arts Office, Donegal Music Education Partnership, Music Network and Kinnegar Brewery . The media partner is the Donegal News and the accommodation partner is Station House Hotel.