Celtic Christmas Concert

We attended the “Celtic Christmas Concert” at the Kirkland Performance Center. We were expecting a somewhat mellow evening of Christmas music with a Celtic twist. We knew Geoffrey Castle,  the featured performer, was a violinist. What we didn't expect was the "rock" aspect of his music. Most of it was wonderful but there were a few parts that were WAY too loud and frenzied for our mature ears. Guess we should have checked out YouTube videos. Here's one from a previous Christmas concert. Click here for the video on Kirkland Performance Center's site. 

Vocalist Beth Quist was with Cirque du Soleil for two years. At this concert she sang and played the hammered dulcimer (on right).

Alan White, famous English drummer who played with John Lennon and other Beatles, did several numbers. Somehow he ended up living in the Bellevue area. It would be interesting to hear his story. Three women from the Seattle Irish Dance Company did many dances. 

Seattle Firefighters Pipes and Drums played some wonderful numbers. Santa came and worked the crowd. He had children come up on the stage and help with audience sing-alongs.

Geoffrey Castle is from this area. He plays frequently at a Kirkland Irish restaurant. The coat he's wearing in the last picture is lined in brilliant scarlet.The outside is embroidered with Celtic symbols. A fan made the coat for him and presented it to him earlier in the day. There was a lot of "smoke" used on the set the first part of the program. We were thinking it was getting way too foggy at one point. Castle finally told the tech people to "cut the smoke" completely. The violin looks very different. Since it's electric/acoustic, there's no sound box.

Castle is a big proponent of music in the schools. Geoffrey Castle tells his story here. About 2/3rds of the way through the video check out the contraption he operates with his foot. He used this at the Christmas concert. He'd record a track. Then play it, then record another track, combine it with the first one and so forth until he had quite a production going. 

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