Media Release

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For immediate release
November 22, 2006

Celebrate the season with Canada’s first family of Celtic music – The Barra MacNeils at The Banff Centre

The Barra MacNeils Christmas Concert, Saturday, December 2, 8:00 p.m.
Eric Harvie Theatre, The Banff Centre
Adult $26, Student/Senior/Child $23, Playbill Special $21, Family of four $75
Banff Centre Box Office: 1-800-413-8368 or 762-6301
Presented as part of the fall 2006 Playbill Series

Musical artistry, Cape Breton tradition, and songs to celebrate the holiday season, The Barra MacNeils Christmas Concert promises to bring all this and more to The Banff Centre’s Eric Harvie Theatre, Saturday, December 2. One of Canada’s premier Celtic groups, this diverse family continues to wow audiences around the world with their captivating vocals, beautiful harmonies, and extraordinary musicianship. For twenty years the family has won over listeners with their distinctive brand of Celtic flavour, playing both haunting ballads and blazing fast reels.

Providing variety and a rejuvenated sound, The Barra MacNeils’s newest studio CD All At Once features the addition of siblings Ryan and Boyd MacNeil. Along with vocal colour, the brothers broaden the family’s already extensive array of talents. The family’s dazzling Christmas Concert draws selections from the group’s two Christmas recordings. The repertoire includes storytelling, songs sung in Gaelic and English, and step dancing as well as examples of instrumental mastery on of the flute, guitar, violin, mandolin, bodran, Celtic harp, fiddle, accordion, ulliean pipes, and banjo.

The Barra MacNeils have released nine recordings, headlined numerous major festivals, won awards, including five East Coast Music Awards, and appeared on countless TV and radio specials. Canada’s Celtic ambassadors, the family has performed for audiences throughout Canada, the United States, the Caribbean, and the United Kingdom,

The Banff Centre’s fall 2006 Playbill Series wraps up with Corb Lund (December 8). The winter 2007 Playbill Series will include Oedipus Loves You (January 20), The Shanghai Circus and Incredible Acrobats of China (January 21), Charlie A'Court and Matt Anderson (January 27), and Martyn Joseph (January 31).

Tickets for all Banff Centre events are available through The Banff Centre Box Office: 1-800-413-8368 or 403-762-6301.

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For a high resolution, downloadable photo of The Barra MacNeils
http://www.banffcentre.ca/media_room/images/playbill/

For more information on the fall 2006 Playbill Series:
http://www.banffcentre.ca/events/playbill/