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KPBX Kids' Concert: Celtic Dance Party with Floating Crowbar

The free concert is happening March 25 at 1 PM at 1110 W. Riverside Ave.

Dance to the rollicking music of Floating Crowbar in-person at the next KPBX Kids' Concert, Saturday, March 25 at 1 pm at Riverside Place, 1110 W. Riverside Ave.

Celtic fans and dancers of all ages can frolic to the sounds of western Ireland with music from Floating Crowbar at our FREE live concert.

Floating Crowbar plays authentic jigs, reels and horn pipes that serve as the soundtrack for this wicked annual dance party!

Don't know how to jig? No worries! Dancers from MSD Irish Dance Academy will provide a live Irish Dance tutorial.

Thanks to Event Donors Harvard Park Children's Learning Center North, STCU, and Rocket Bakeries.

Going to the concert? You can park for free in the Diamond Lot behind the venue. View more parking info here.

About the Performers

Multi instrumentalists Don Thomsen and James Hunter have joined forces with guitarist Eugene Jablonsky and fiddler Morgan Andersen. Their use of uilleann pipes, flute, whistle, banjo and mandolin as well as fiddle and guitar is sure to get you dancing a jig at this free concert. Coming from a wide variety of backgrounds and musical interests, they bring together their common passion for Irish music, good humor, mutual respect and friendship into a show that will be enjoyed by any Celtic music fan.

Morgan took up the fiddle while attending the Violin Making School of America in the mid ’70s. He then moved to San Francisco to study bow making in 1978-79. The inspiration to focus on tradition Irish music came from playing in Sunday sessions at The Plow and the Stars lead by Kevin Keegan and hearing many fine players play in the same establishment on Fridays and Saturday nights during those years.

James was born in London and grew up all over the world, mostly in southeast Asia. He has explored many musical paths, from reggae to jazz to classical Japanese music. He is a deshi of Tsurugi Kodo and also of Yoshimura Komei, shakuhachi masters in the Kinko Ryu.

Don comes from Michigan. He grew up in a musical family: his mother played violin, his father was an instrumental music teacher, and his older brother played tuba. His first instrument was a small melody flute, followed with piano, then trombone in school band. The early 70’s brought the first exposure to Irish Music, and a move to Washington State, and the seed planted then has grown into a real passion for the Music of Ireland. The current group started with Don and Rick playing as a duo, then adding Morgan, and finally James, to become the lineup for Floating Crowbar.

Eugene's love for all kinds of music began with his grandmother and pianist mother's household mix of Yiddish songs, Cole Porter, Chopin, and chamber music parties. After graduating in double bass performance from the Curtis Institute of Music, his diverse musical talents have taken him from playing chamber music in European palaces to pickin' country hits in back road Wild West honkytonks. He has played with jazz pianist Marian McPartland, A Prairie Home Companion's Guy's All-Star Shoe Band, Gunther Schuller and The New England Ragtime Ensemble, swing violin legend Johnny Gimble, jazz violinists Darol Anger and Johnny Frigo, and the Spokane Symphony.

More to Explore

Coloring Sheet

Learn how to step like an Irish dancer by checking out our video tutorial from 2022! Natasha from MSD Irish Dance Academy gives a simple tutorial of basic Irish steps that you can break out during the concert.

Celtic Dance Tutorial 2022

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