A Southern Celtic Christmas is a unique holiday program that brings together some of the leading artists in Irish and traditional Appalachian music to create a fun-filled, moving and profoundly meaningful celebration of the holiday season. The program, which grew out of a 20 year holiday concert tradition at Emory University, celebrates through music, dance, poetry, song and story the high spirits and mystical beauty of the Christmas traditions of the Celtic lands and their connections with similar traditions of the American South. What is revealed is the common thread of humanity's celebration of the bounty of life at the darkest time of the year. During November-December 2013, roughly 37% of the PBS affiliates across the country carried A Southern Celtic Christmas program and this year that number is expected to increase. A Southern Celtic Christmas features a cast of world-class artists including three GRAMMY Award-winners: "First Lady of Celtic Song" Moya Brennan, bluegrass and Celtic banjo virtuoso Alison Brown and Riverdance composer Bill Whelan with a stunning choral setting of a 7th century Irish prayer-poem. Also included is a rare television appearance by the late, beloved Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney in which he talks about the reverence for nature at the heart of Celtic spirituality as well as in his own poetry. Appearances by Joe Craven, John Doyle, Rising Appalachia, Buddy O'Reilly Band, Rosin Sisters, Kelly Stewart Brzozowski, The Atlanta Irish Dance Troupe and more round out the program which is hosted by noted Yeats scholar and director, Irish tenor and storyteller James Flannery. "A rollicking yet reverent time", is how the Atlanta Journal-Constitution describes the show. Bob Olive, the COO of Georgia Public Broadcasting which has presented A Southern Celtic Christmas for the past three years, recommends it as "both entertaining and inspiring, as well as evocative of the Christmas season in a way that hasn't previously existed in program offers to stations."
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