sings traditional
Irish songs in Irish and English,
composes original songs for voice, piano, and
flute,
improvises musical embellishment for storytellers
as they spin their tales,
writes and teaches about Celtic languages and
literatures,
invents stories for young and old,
shapes sounds and sense into poems.
Kate Chadbourne has built her life’s house
at the crossroads of song, scholarship, poetry, story,
and music. She holds a Ph.D. in Celtic from Harvard where she teaches courses
in Irish language, folklore, literature, and storytelling. The stories she
tells are mainly Irish folktales and medieval legends, often embellished
with harp accompaniment. In her musical life, she travels between the world
of Irish traditional music and the worlds she imagines and creates in her
original songs for voice, piano, Irish flute, whistle, and harp. She is
also a published poet and essayist. Responding to this freedom and range,
one reviewer hailed her as a modern troubadour.
Kate’s performances often set a traditional Irish tale alongside an
original song, or a newly-minted poem next to a set of reels. Listeners
encounter a blend of the ancient, the modern, and the quirkily idiosyncratic.
Whether she is singing, telling stories, teaching, or sharing a poem, she
aims to leave her audiences moved, enlivened, and eager for their own adventures.
Kate has performed at the following:
Colleges and Universities ~ Harvard
University; Boston College; University College Galway (Ireland); Magee College,
University of Ulster (Derry, Northern Ireland); University College Cork
(Ireland); Johnson & Wales University; Providence College; Bridgewater
State College; Plymouth State College; Western Michigan University; Celtic
Institute of North America
Libraries, Festivals, Conferences, and Museums ~ Castle
Hill (Ipswich); The Haffenreffer Museum (Providence); The Mariposa Museum
(Peterborough, NH); The Goodnow Public Library (Sudbury); The Irish Cultural
Center (Canton); The 1714 Meeting House, Lynnfield Historical Society; Smithsonian
Odyssey Tour of Ireland; Sharing the Fire Storytelling Festival; The Saco
Museum (Saco, ME); Cary Memorial Library (Lexington); Maine Writers’
Conference; Revels Salon Series, Commander’s Mansion (Watertown)
Art Centers, Coffeehouses, and Concert Halls ~ Club Passim
(Cambridge); Red Door Coffeehouse (Framingham); The Center for Arts (Natick);
First Parish Church (Watertown); Amazing Things Art Center (Natick); Bookseller
Café (Medford); The Emerson Umbrella (Concord); Springstep Performing
Arts Center (Medford); Portland Stage Company (Portland, ME); The Performing
Arts Center (Westford); Café Ziba (Acton); The Java Room (Chelmsford);
The Side Door Coffeehouse (Jamaica Plain); King Hooper Café (Marblehead)
