A host of renowned Celtic musicians with Michigan ties will appear with the Battle Creek Symphony in its upcoming holiday concert. They include fiddle virtuoso Jeremy Kittel, a Michigan native whose credentials include a jazz degree from the Manhattan School of Music and performing/composing with the Turtle Island String Quartet. Uillean piper Christopher Layer, currently appearing on Broadway in Sting's new musical, The Last Ship, will perform on a variety of pipes and flutes. The Battle Creek-based Irish band Fonnmor, featuring Irish singer Simone Keenan, returns for its second appearance with the Battle Creek Symphony, and the concert marks the BCSO debuts of singer Katie Else and dancer Nic Gareiss.
Conductor Anne Harrigan says the orchestra will premiere a number of new Christmas-themed Celtic arrangements, written by a variety of composers, including Evan Chambers, a professor of composition at the University of Michigan.