Irish and maritime music features of May 13 concert

SALT LAKE CITY (MFAH) — The May 13 Madeleine Festival of the Arts and Humanities continues May 13 at 8 p.m. with a performance in the Cathedral of the Madeleine of Yankee Clipper, a traditional music ensemble, presenting "Across the Sea."

Musicians Cliff Butter, Paul Rasmussen, Mark Jardine, and Stan Jensen will perform songs and ballads from Ireland, the British Isles, and the maritime tradition.

The musicians will combine traditional tunes with original compositions that hearken back to a simpler time; one of tilling fields, shearing sheep, and sailing on fully rigged tall ships. Virtuosic instrumental displays performed on a dazzling array of instruments including the fiddle, tenor banjo, mandolin, concertina, tin whistle, bouzouki, and the Irish drum (bodhran) are matched with powerfully evocative four-part harmonies to create an evening of humor, history, and music.

Yankee Clipper represents a veritable "who’s who" of folk music in Utah. The group was founded by Cliff Butter (tenor banjo, mandolin, and bodhran) and Paul Rasmussen (bouzouki, mandolin, and guitar), veterans of the popular Celtic band Tenpenny and the internationally renowned Loggerheads, as well as the Utah’s old-time mainstay, the Wasatch Rascals.

Butter and Rasmussen have performed in venues throughout the United States and Canada, including the Bluemont Concert Series in Northern Virginia, the Lunenburg Fold Harbor Festival in Nova Scotia, and at the 200th birthday party of John Paul Jones at the United States Naval Museum.

Butter and Rasmussen are joined by Mark Jardine and Stan Jensen, both Tenpenny alumni.

Jardine is an original member of the Deseret String Band. His solo recording, "Come the Seasons," has earned him rave revues in local and national publications. He has performed at the San Diego Folk Festival and throughout Alaska with the Western Arts Alliance.

Jardine was commissioned by the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C. to compose music for the "Grand Beehive Exhibition.

The fourth member of Yankee Clipper, Stan Jensen, plays the tin whistle, Irish flute, and bodhran. His lilting, incisive playing ranks him among the finest tradition wind instrumentalists in the Western Unites States.

"Across the Sea" is free and open to the public, as is the May 20 presentation of "An American Voice," by the Cathedral Choir and Chamber Orchestra, Gregory Glenn conducting.

The closing event of the 2007 Madeleine Festival of the Arts and Humanities, the Madeleine Award Dinner, will honor Fred C. Adams, founder of the 2002 Tony Award-winning Utah Shakespearean Festival in Cedar City.

The Madeleine Award Dinner will be held June 3, beginning at 6 p.m. at Memorial House in Memory Grove. Ticket prices for the dinner are $50 per person.

For further information about the 2007 Madeleine Festival of the Arts and Humanities and the Madeleine Award Dinner call 328-8940.