Carnegie Hall will kick off its Migrations: The Making of America citywide festival on March 9 in Stern Auditorium, with Chris Thile hosting an evening of traditional Scots, Irish, and American folk music that explores the evolution of these traditions and their continued impact on one another. The concert—also featuring banjoist Béla Fleck, double bassist Edgar Meyer, Gaelic singer Julie Fowlis, and Irish-American singer-songwriter Aoife O’Donovan—will be broadcast live on radio and online. Continuing through May, the festival will trace journeys of people from different origins and backgrounds who helped to shape and influence the evolution of American arts and culture. Concerts will examine the musical legacies of three migrations: the crossings from Scotland and Ireland during the 18th and 19th centuries; the immigration of Jews from Russia and Eastern Europe between 1881 and the National Origins Act of 1924; and the Great Migration—the exodus of African Americans from the South to the industrialized cities of the Northeast, Midwest, and West from 1917 into the 1970s. Music will range from bluegrass, klezmer, Yiddish musical theater, the Great American Songbook, blues, jazz, and more. For more information, visit the Carnegie Hall website.
Posted March 8, 2019
