The highly popular holiday show “Tomáseen Foley’s A Celtic Christmas” returns to St. Bonaventure University’s Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts this Sunday, Dec. 10, for a 4 p.m. performance.

 

It is the fourth performance in the Friends of Good Music performance season at the Quick Center.

 

Now in its 28th season of touring nationally, “Tomáseen Foley’s A Celtic Christmas” recreates the joy and innocence of a night before Christmas in a remote farmhouse in Foley’s native parish of Teampall an Ghleanntáin in the west of Ireland in the 1950s. It was a time when neighboring families gathered around the fire to grace the wintry night with traditional Irish Christmas carols, raise the rafters with the joy of their music, knock sparks off the flagstone floor with traditional dances, and, of course, fill the night with stories and laughter.

 

The performance promises to “rekindle the flame in the hearth with stories, music, song and dance from the rich treasury of Ireland’s cultural heritage.” All are invited to spend an evening with native Irish storyteller Foley and some of the most gifted Celtic musicians, dancers and singers performing anywhere today, on either side of the Atlantic.

 

In addition to storyteller Foley, performers include William Coulter, music director and guitar; Brian Bigley, Uilleann pipes, Irish flute, whistles, Irish dance; Eimear Arkins, multi-instrumentalist, singer, Irish dance; Marcus Donnelly, Irish dance; and Natalie Wagner, Irish dance.

 

Special single ticket prices for this performance, for nonsubscribers to the performance season, are $25, with a reduced price of $10 for children under the age of 13.

 

For tickets and information, call The Quick Center at (716) 375-2494.

 

For each Friends of Good Music performance, The Quick Center will open its galleries one hour before the performance and keep them open throughout the intermission. Regular gallery hours are noon to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and noon to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

 

Museum admission is free and open to the public year-round. For more information, visit www.sbu.edu/quickcenter. 

 

______________

 

 

About the University: The nation’s first Franciscan university, St. Bonaventure University is a community committed to transforming the lives of our students inside and outside the classroom, inspiring in them a lifelong commitment to service and citizenship. Out of 167 regional universities in the North, St. Bonaventure was ranked #6 for value and #14 for innovation by U.S. News and World Report (2024).