2016 PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS
Soundings Holy Trinity
Irish broadcaster Dylan Haskins and acclaimed singer-songwriter Lisa Hannigan are joined by an eclectic mix of guests for this "holy trinity" of stories to inspire, alarm and humor, with musical interludes in a series of three live shows and podcasts in iconic locations throughout New York City.
6th Annual Celtic Appalachian Celebration
Our legendary and longtime artistic associate, folklorist and bandleader Mick Moloney leads audiences on a journey of discovery from the music of Ulster Scot and African banjo traditions through the American South to the development of bluegrass, country, and old-time music.
Belinda McKeon: Tender
An evening with the celebrated author (and PoetryFest co-curator) to celebrate the launch of her second novel, Tender, following her astonishing debut Solace.
Masters in Collaboration X: Colin Dunne Meets Nic Gareiss
After his 2014 IAC debut with This is How we Fly, the thrilling and expressive young percussive dancer Nic Gareiss joins Irish dance legend Colin Dunne (Out of Time) for our 10th Masters in Collaboration Series, a week-long residency that invites audiences into the most intimate and surprising moments in the creative process.
The Chicago native and Dublin-based director Annie Ryan and The Corn Exchange come to New York with the U.S premiere of A Girl is a Half-formed Thing adapted from the novel by Eimear McBride, starring Aoife Duffin. Co-presented with Baryshnikov Arts Center.
An Irish Christmas
Irish Arts Center favorite
Lenwood Sloan
(Two Roads Diverged) returns as part of our annual holiday extravaganza, An Irish Christmas, featuring
Mick Moloney,
Athena Tergis,
and an all-star cast of musicians, celebrating Irish and global midwinter and holiday traditions.
Wild Sky
The acclaimed Co. Meath-based playwright Deirdre Kinahan returns to Irish Arts Center with the U.S. premiere of Wild Sky, a moving and evocative tribute to the people of 1916 from a uniquely rural perspective. Directed by Jo Mangan with music by Susan McKeown.
We begin the Centenary year with St. Ann's Warehouse and an Irish artistic explosion into the world of contemporary opera. The Last Hotel brings together two of Ireland's greatest contemporary artists, writer Enda Walsh and composer Donnacha Dennehy, for a thrilling performance starring singers Claudia Boyle, Robin Adams, Katherine Manley, and actor Mikel Murfi. A Landmark Productions and Wide Open Opera co-production, presented by St. Ann's Warehouse, with IAC and Prototype. Mikel Murfi also returns to IAC in 2016 with an encore engagement of last season's smash hit The Man In the Woman's Shoes.
Féile na Gaeilge / Irish Language Day
Children and adults of all ages and backgrounds come together for a day-long celebration of the Irish language with music, poetry, theatre and conversation. Féile na Gaeilge is just one highlight of our community education programming, which includes more than 40 classes per week in Irish language, music, history and dance, with master classes across all disciplines throughout the year led by Irish Arts Center's astonishing community of artists from Ireland and Irish America.
Return to Absence
Irish Arts Center and New York Live Arts join forces to co-present Arcane Collective, founded by dance artists Morleigh Steinberg and Oguri, in the U.S premiere of Return to Absence. Constructing a fluent language of movement as abstract and absurd as Beckett's words, the dance weaves a non-linear tale of decrepit persistence and playful futility of life at the end of its tether.
Women in Work, Women in Art - A Celebration
Following a two-day long conference on the role of domestic servants in New York, we celebrate the immense accomplishments of women in the arts with a concert featuring Irish music legend Joanie Madden and a line-up of major female artists from contemporary Irish America. A collaboration with Merchant's House Museum, Glucksman Ireland House NYU, and The Sheen Center for Thought and Culture.
In our first partnership with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Irish Arts Center will co-present script-in-hand presentations in New York and Washington of Fishamble's Tiny Plays for Ireland and America, directed by Jim Culleton. In celebration of the Kennedy Center's IRELAND 100 festival, Fishamble's acclaimed series of twenty tiny plays that portray contemporary Irish life will be accompanied by six new tiny American plays selected from an open competition across age groups.
Jean Butler:
this is an Irish dance
Following the world premiere in New York, this exciting contemporary dance piece by the iconic Irish dancer/choreographer and composer/musician Neil Martin, will perform in Washington, D.C. as part of the IRELAND 100 festival at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. An Irish Arts Center, Project Arts Centre (Dublin), and Danspace (New York) co-commission.
Muldoon's Picnic
Pulitzer-winning poet Paul Muldoon returns for another season of words and music jamborees with house band Rogue Oliphant and an incredible lineup of special guests including Laurie Anderson, Salman Rushdie, Cait O'Riordan (The Pogues) and Anne Enright.
Camille O'Sullivan: Encore
One of Ireland's most profoundly moving and thrilling musical performers, the unforgettable Camille O'Sullivan returns to Irish Arts Center for a special encore engagement with pianist Feargal Murray and her band.
Stay tuned for details and on-sale dates and visit irishartscenter.org for updates on this historic year, made possible, in part, through the generosity of "I am Ireland" -- the Culture Ireland International Programme for 2016 that forms part of the Ireland 2016 Centenary Programme, a rich diversity of events which will run throughout 2016 to commemorate the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising.
IAC16 is also supported, in part, by New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council on the Arts, Gilman Foundation, Bloomberg Foundation, Northern Ireland Bureau, British Arts Council, American Ireland Fund, Tourism Ireland, and people like you.
