Register

St. Patrick's Day Live Irish Flute & Harp Concert NEW

with The Folklife Center of Northern New Jersey

*This is a paid Adult School class. Click on the ticketing link to register.

Get ready for St. Patrick's Day with the gift of live music! Linda Hickman and Iris Nevins of the Folklife Center of Northern New Jersey will delight you with traditional Irish flute and harp music, from ancient Celtic tunes to dance music, and share some of the history behind the heritage. 

The Folklife Center of Northern New Jersey is a co-sponsored project of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts and Passaic County Community College.

Linda Hickman is an original member of the Washington, DC-based band Celtic Thunder, and can be heard on all of their recordings. She learned to play Irish traditional flute from the late Jack Coen in the Bronx, and later from Mike Rafferty and Monsignor Charlie Coen. She plays with the Ceol na gCroi Ceili Band; playing for ceilis throughout the NY/NJ Tri-State area with John Nolan (accordion) and Brendan Fahey (drums). In 2016, Linda was inducted into Comhaltas Ceoltoiri-Eireann-Mid Atlantic Region Hall of Fame for her contribution to Irish music and dance in the New York area. She was also a 2012 inductee into the People’s Choice Hall of Fame in NYC for her contribution to Irish music and she is a recipient of a City Artists Corp Grant from NY Foundation for the Arts in 2021 for her film “Me and The Sea”. In 2022, she moved to New Jersey where she continues to teach Irish tin whistle and flute in person and online on Zoom, Skype and Facetime and to play Irish traditional music with Iris Nevin (harp) as well as continuing to play for ceilis. Her website is: http://lindahickman.com

Iris Nevins has played extensively in the NY/NJ area since the1970's. She was the guitar accompanist for Irish fiddle legends, Andy McGann and Johnny Cronin, and also Joe Accordion Burke and Joe Banjo Burke in the late 70s-early 80s. During that time, she was also a member of the group "The Crooked Road", house band at the O'Reilly's Pub on West 31st St. in NYC. Iris currently co-hosts the monthly seisun at the Irish American Association Of Northwest Jersey and also hosts a concert series there, dating from 2005. Iris is a fingerstyle guitarist and Celtic harper, and plays melody, accompaniment, and composes tunes for the guitar and harp. She also plays a selection of O'Carolan Harp tunes and traditional dance tunes transposed for guitar. Her accompaniment style on both harp and guitar is a hybrid of harmony and melody to tie in closely to the dance tunes, jigs, reels, hornpipes etc. Iris' solo guitar CD of traditional and original fingerstyle tunes is “Celtic Guitar Dreams”,  and her harp and guitar CD is "String Theory".  She has another CD with melodeon player, Alan Morrisroe from Mayo and Dublin. Iris builds her own harps and teaches both harp and guitar.

Housed in the historic Hamilton Club at Passaic County Community College in Paterson, the Folklife Center of Northern New Jersey officially opened its doors to the public in spring 2019. The Center celebrates the region’s diversity by documenting and building awareness and appreciation of vital cultural traditions.  Throughout the region, an array of traditional and folk arts performances, workshops, demos and exhibits are presented free of charge for youth, homebound residents, and general audiences.

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