BAGPIPE LEGEND PADDY KEENAN TO PERFORM AT CLARK ART INSTITUTE

For Immediate Release
March 15, 2016

Williamstown, Massachusetts—Irish bagpiper Paddy Keenan, known for his wild and free style, performs in a cabaret setting at the Clark Art Institute on Friday, April 1 at 7:30 pm. Opening for Keenan is the Williamstown-based folk band Long Journey. Tickets are $20 ($18 members); purchase tickets at clarkart.edu or call 413 458 0524. Food and drink will be available for purchase.

Keenan plays uillean pipes—bagpipes with bellows strapped around the waist and pumped by the elbow, producing a sweeter and quieter tone than their Scottish cousins. His flowing, open-fingered style of playing can be traced to the style of such great traveling pipers as Johnny Doran; Keenan’s father and grandfather played in the same style. Keenan is known well beyond traditional Irish music circles as a solo artist and as a founding member of the groundbreaking Bothy Band. Changing the face of Irish traditional music, The Bothy Band merged a driving rhythm section with traditional Irish tunes in ways that had never been heard before.

Keenan took up the pipes at the age of ten, playing his first major concert at the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, when he was 14. He later played with his family in a group called The Pavees. At 17, having fallen in love with the blues, he left Ireland for England and Europe, where he played blues and rock. Returning to Ireland after a few years, he joined a loosely knit band called Seachtar—later renamed The Bothy Band—which performed in the 1970s.

ABOUT THE CLARK

The Clark Art Institute, located in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, is one of a small number of institutions globally that is both an art museum and a center for research, critical discussion, and higher education in the visual arts. Opened in 1955, the Clark houses exceptional European and American paintings and sculpture, extensive collections of master prints and drawings, English silver, and early photography. Acting as convener through its Research and Academic Program, the Clark gathers an international community of scholars to participate in a lively program of conferences, colloquia, and workshops on topics of vital importance to the visual arts. The Clark library, consisting of more than 240,000 volumes, is one of the nation’s premier art history libraries. The Clark also houses and co-sponsors the Williams College Graduate Program in the History of Art.

The Clark is located at 225 South Street in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Galleries are open Tuesday through Sunday, 10 am to 5 pm. Admission is $20; free year-round for Clark members, children 18 and younger, and students with valid ID. For more information, visit clarkart.edu or call 413 458 2303.

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