Fiddle takes lead
Celtic violinist Ivers to perform Saturday with symphony

By Bill Thompson
bthompson@postandcourier.com
Sunday, March 13, 2011

Careful, gents, her electric fiddle is combustible.

Anointed the "Jimi Hendrix of the violin" by one New York Times critic, Eileen Ivers and her band, Immigrant Soul, will kick out the jams with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra with a 7:30 p.m. Saturday performance at the Gaillard Municipal Auditorium.

Serving as guest conductor for this incendiary performance will be Morihiko Nakahara.

"The Fiery Fiddle of Eileen Ivers: Bringing Immigrant Soul to Charleston" may be all the more impressive when you learn Ivers never expected to become a professional musician, certainly not one who has garnered numerous All-Ireland Fiddle Championships and Grammy Awards.

Fact is, her education is in math. But it's not so great a leap from mathematics to the art form with which it is most closely aligned, music.

Ivers' unintentional career has ushered her from co-founding Cherish the Ladies and touring with The Chieftains to guest starring with varied symphonies and collaborating with jazz and pop artists such as Sting.

Her artistry and stage power now command an up-front role for the fiddle in Celtic performances of all kinds, especially in "Riverdance!"

Her solo work has found Ivers delving deeply into Irish and Celtic sounds while also finding connections between scattered Celtic communities around the world. In the process, she has helped reveal how these connections reverberate in American roots music.

"We are thrilled to have Eileen Ivers and her band perform with the Charleston Symphony," says Yuriy Bekker, artistic adviser of the CSO. "This concert is a great opportunity for our community to hear a world-renowned Celtic fiddler and for the symphony's classically trained musicians to let loose for a St. Patrick's Day celebration."

Immigrant Soul is composed of lead singer, percussionist and former Blues Brother Tommy McDonnell; bassist Leo Traversa, a teacher at Columbia University; acoustic guitarist Greg Anderson, who has worked with such diverse musicians as Pete Seeger and Itzhak Perlman; and All-Ireland accordion champ Buddy Connolly, who has collaborated with the likes of Tim O'Brien and Kathy Mattea.

Their goal: bring the most sedentary audience leaping to its feet.

Reach Bill Thompson at 937-5707.