Description
Deep Solstice: Dancing the Dark
with Mariénne Kreitlow, Ann & Charlie Heymann & Friends
A musical-poetic delve into the mystery of Earth’s longest night, seasoned with dashes of spirits and mirth. Featuring music forged in friendship, a united dichotomy, in the likeness of Yin and Yang or the Moon and the Sun, the Past and the Future. Pour your wassail concoction and journey with these Minnesota-based artists to explore the heart of winter with hope of what’s to come.
Hear new settings of Robert Frost’s Looking for a Sunset Bird in Winter and Shakespeare’s When Icicles Hang by The Wall, along with Mariénne’s originals. Learn how ice fishing leads to love making, the joy in finding your own scraggly Christmas tree, and that trusting your inner compass gets you home no matter how lost. Enjoy feisty performance poetry like The Abominable Snowman’s Wife and The Tragic Loss of Frederique.
Featuring replica harps with gold, silver and brass strings, Ann and Charlie present a diversity of ancient to modern music & song on a variety of instruments including cittern, guitar, accordion, concertina, wooden flute, whistles & percussion. Pieces range from the exquisite Á Ghrian to lively jigs (like Queen of the Rushes) and reels with Danielle Enblom joining in with fiddle and the percussive Sean nos Irish dance that intersects with North American traditions.
Also featured is Ethna McKiernan, an acclaimed Minnesota poet reading her Jupiter Crosses Saturn, penned on last year’s solstice and underscored by Ann’s new composition-soundscape.
Ann Heymann is a master in the performance and traditions of the Gaelic harp and leads the instrument’s modern revival. Charlie is an acclaimed multi-instrumentalist who joins Ann’s harp playing and lends his voice as the foundation of ballads, recitations, and stories. This year Ann was honored with two Lifetime Achievement Awards—one from the Historical Harp Society of Ireland and the other from The Somerset Folk Harp Festival in the USA.
Poet, songwriter, performance artist, and creator of musical theatre, Mariénne’s mission statement explains her fascination with cross-pollinating genres: “juxtaposition = confusion = recalibration = delight = new reality!” She loves creating and performing theme-based shows that integrate performance poetry with other artists and art forms. She is dedicated to tending the earth on her Minnesota farm, a theme oft reflected in her work.
