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| | Celtic Series '26: Hayden Stern & Dear Crow
Tuesday Oct. 20 @7pm
Double-Billing! Hayden Stern Trio and Dear Crow.
Dear Crow description: Old-time tunes, original and trad songs, sweet double fiddles and lyrical banjo, tight vocal harmonies: a sound that is both nostalgic and bright with possibility. Dear Crow is the musical partnership of Brian Lindsay (of the powerhouse acoustic duo "Countercurrent") and Penka Jane Culevski, a forthright and emotive fiddler and songsmith. In the heartfelt and vulnerable arrangements of Dear Crow, the harmonies ring easily, the songs pluck your heartstrings, and the tunes roll and tumble with the energy that only dance musicians can muster.
Hayden Stern description: As a fiddler, composer, and community builder Hayden Stern has taken Seattle’s roots music scene by storm. Stern draws freely from multiple traditions, expanding his original base of Scottish fiddling to Irish, Scandinavian, French-Canadian, Appalachian, and beyond. His debut album, The Morning Dark, focuses on composing tunes himself, bringing his roving ear and keen focus on arranging to a live performance built to rouse everyone to dance.
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| | Celtic Series '26: Hildaland
Thursday Nov. 19 @7pm
Scottish fiddle tradition meets American roots music, progressive bluegrass and contemporary acoustic composition when Hildaland arrives at the LCCC on Thursday, November 19.
Hildaland is the musical partnership of Orkney-born fiddler Louise Bichan and American mandolinist Ethan Setiawan. Together, the two musicians explore what happens when distinctive traditional backgrounds meet a shared interest in improvisation, composition and musical experimentation.
Bichan comes from Orkney, the group of islands off Scotland’s northern coast known for a strong and distinctive fiddle tradition. Her music reflects both her upbringing there and the experience of carrying that tradition into an international musical life.
Setiawan, originally from Indiana, has developed a reputation as one of the most adventurous young mandolinists in American acoustic music. His playing draws from bluegrass and old-time music while reaching naturally toward jazz, contemporary composition and traditional music from outside the United States.
The two met while studying at Berklee College of Music and first performed together as members of the quartet Corner House. As Hildaland, they reduce the sound to fiddle and mandolin, giving both instruments the freedom to shift between melody, accompaniment and improvisation.
Their debut album, Sule Skerry, combines traditional material with original compositions inspired by landscape, travel and the experience of living between places.
The duo’s performance should appeal equally to longtime Celtic music fans and listeners drawn to contemporary acoustic music. The melodies may be old or newly composed, but the approach is consistently curious and forward-looking.
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| | Celtic Series '26: Kevin Burke
Thursday Dec 10 @6pm
One of the most influential Irish fiddlers of the past half-century will take the LCCC stage on Thursday, December 10, when Kevin Burke performs in the Celtic Series.
The December performance begins at the earlier wintertime hour of 6:00 PM.
Burke has been at the forefront of Irish traditional music since the 1970s. Born in London to Irish parents, he grew up surrounded by Irish music and developed his playing in the vibrant traditional music scene of his youth.
His style is closely associated with the fiddle tradition of County Sligo, known for its flowing ornamentation, rhythmic drive and expressive melodic phrasing.
Burke reached international audiences as a member of the legendary Bothy Band, one of the most influential ensembles in the history of modern Irish traditional music. He later became a founding member of Patrick Street and performed extensively with Open House and the Celtic Fiddle Festival.
Through all of those collaborations, Burke developed a sound that is immediately recognizable. His playing can be fiery and rhythmic, but it can also become quiet and conversational, allowing the emotional character of a melody to take center stage.
Burke has received major honors for his lifetime contribution to traditional music, including a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, Ireland’s Gradam Ceoil Traditional Musician of the Year honor and induction into the Oregon Music Hall of Fame.
Burke also has a special connection to LCCC. He was scheduled to appear in the Cultural Center’s Celtic Series in spring 2020 before live performances were interrupted by the pandemic. Instead, he participated in the Center’s online Creative Quarantine programming from his Portland home.
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| | Making Movies + Rizo
Thursday December 17 @ 7PM
Making Movies is the Latin Grammy–nominated group led by Enrique Chi — born in Santiago, Panamá, and raised in the American Midwest — forging a sound guided by tradition, yet unmistakably its own.
The band has been described by Rolling Stone as “an eclectic blend of rumbero percussion, delicate organs, and grungy fuzz,” while NPR calls the project “perhaps one of the most unique groups around today.”
Their sound is anchored in the rich rhythmic traditions of Panamá and delivered with the force of a psychedelic rock show. Chi weaves the mejorana, a traditional hand-made instrument rarely heard outside of Panamá, into each performance.
Making Movies’ is collaborative across genres, working with artists from Rubén Blades to Kevin Morby, and David Hidalgo (Los Lobos) to Hurray for the Riff Raff. Most notably, Steve Berlin (Los Lobos) has served as a guiding force for the band — functioning as a spiritual band member, producer, and mentor.
New album Una Vida out Fall 2026.
Joining Making Movies is Rizo, an acclaimed singer, performer and storyteller whose theatrical concerts blend music, humor and cabaret into a singular live experience.
Movie Tickets
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| | Celtic Series '26: Aryeh Frankfurter & Lisa Lynne
Saturday Jan. 9 @6pm
The Oregon-based multi-instrumentalists are known for creating concerts that move easily between Celtic traditions, Nordic music and original compositions.
Audiences can expect Celtic harps alongside such distinctive instruments as the Swedish nyckelharpa, Ukrainian bandura, bouzouki, cittern, violin and other strings. The constant changes in instrumentation allow the duo to create a surprising range of sounds from just two performers.
Lisa Lynne is an internationally recognized harpist, composer and recording artist whose original music for Celtic harp has reached listeners around the world. Her recordings have appeared on major labels including Windham Hill and Sony Music, and she has performed extensively at festivals, arts centers and community gatherings.
Aryeh Frankfurter began studying classical violin as a child before his interests expanded into Celtic, Scandinavian and other traditional music. He later became particularly associated with the nyckelharpa, a bowed Swedish instrument with sympathetic strings and a keyboard mechanism that produces a resonant, unmistakable sound.
Together, Lynne and Frankfurter combine their instrumental versatility with storytelling and humor gathered through years of performing and traveling together.
Their January concert offers a different side of the Celtic Series. Rather than focusing primarily on the high-speed energy of jigs and reels, the program creates room for resonance, atmosphere and the distinctive voices of instruments that audiences seldom encounter in everyday concert settings.
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| | Celtic Series '26: Caroline Keane & Tom Delany
Thursday Feb 4 @6pm
Keane and Delany began making music together while studying at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick. Since then, their partnership has taken them to stages throughout Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand.
Their sound centers on two instruments with distinctive voices in Irish traditional music.
Keane plays concertina, bringing precision, rhythm and expressive ornamentation to an instrument that can sound both delicate and remarkably powerful.
She has performed with leading figures in Irish music and has received recognition for her work as both a performer and teacher. Based in the West Kerry Gaeltacht, where Irish remains part of everyday community life, Keane is closely connected to the living cultural traditions that surround the music she performs.
Delany plays uilleann pipes, the sophisticated bellows-blown pipes of Ireland, as well as bouzouki and guitar.
Unlike the Scottish Highland pipes, the uilleann pipes are played while seated and are powered by a bellows under the musician’s arm. Their wide expressive range allows a player to move from haunting, sustained melodies to richly ornamented dance tunes.
Together, concertina and pipes can produce tremendous rhythmic excitement. Keane and Delany also use bouzouki and guitar to expand the duo’s sound and give their arrangements additional texture.
For February’s Celtic Series concert, audiences can expect jigs, reels, airs and other traditional material presented by two musicians whose partnership is rooted in years of playing, studying and traveling together.
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| | Celtic Series '26: Men of Worth
Wednesday March 17 @7pm
St. Patrick’s Day comes with songs, stories, traditional instruments and plenty of humor when longtime favorites Men of Worth return to the Lincoln City Cultural Center on Wednesday, March 17 at 7:00 PM.
The duo brings together Donnie Macdonald of Scotland and James Keigher of Ireland, two musicians who have performed together since 1986.
For more than three decades, Men of Worth has toured throughout the United States with a warm and engaging blend of Scottish and Irish traditional and contemporary folk music.
Their concerts are built around songs first. Ballads, work songs, love songs and pieces rooted in history are mixed with instrumental tunes and stories about the people and communities from which the music emerged.
Their performances also draw on the contrast between their backgrounds, with Macdonald bringing the songs and traditions of Scotland and Keigher contributing music rooted in Ireland.
The result is less like a formal recital and more like being welcomed into an evening of music among friends. Serious songs can be followed by comic stories, and familiar choruses frequently invite audiences to join in.
Men of Worth have recorded numerous albums and spent decades performing in folk clubs, theaters, festivals and community venues. They are also familiar faces at the Cultural Center, where their combination of musicianship and storytelling has made them returning audience favorites.
This year, their appearance falls directly on St. Patrick’s Day, creating a natural opportunity to celebrate Irish culture while also recognizing the musical ties between Ireland and Scotland.
Green attire is welcome, but no shamrocks are required. The real celebration will be in the songs.
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| | Celtic Series '26: Tom, Paddy & Adam
Thursday April 1 @7pm
April begins at full speed when Tom Callister, Paddy Callaghan and Adam Rhodes bring fiddle, accordion and bouzouki to the Cultural Center on Thursday, April 1.
The trio draws from three closely related but distinct musical traditions: the Isle of Man, Scotland and Ireland.
Tom Callister, on fiddle, and Adam Rhodes, on bouzouki, come from the Isle of Man and are internationally known through projects including Mec Lir and Ímar. Their Manx musical background adds an important dimension to a Celtic Series that often visits Ireland and Scotland but less frequently explores the culture of the small island located between them.
The Isle of Man has its own Celtic language, Manx Gaelic, and a distinctive body of traditional music that has experienced a major cultural revival in recent decades.
Joining Callister and Rhodes is Glasgow-based accordionist Paddy Callaghan, a former BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year. His driving accordion playing brings the unmistakable energy of Scotland’s traditional dance music scene to the trio.
Together, the three musicians create an impressive amount of sound.
Callister’s fiddle carries melodies at full tilt, Callaghan’s accordion provides both melody and rhythmic power, and Rhodes’ bouzouki gives the music a propulsive harmonic foundation.
The result is traditional music played with contemporary energy. These musicians know the repertoire well enough to stretch it, rearrange it and take risks without losing the qualities that made the tunes survive across generations.
Expect fast-moving sets, tight ensemble playing, rhythmic surprises and enough musical momentum to launch the Celtic Series into its spring finale.
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| | Celtic Series '26: Le Vent Du Nord
Wednesday May 5 @7pm
The Lincoln City Cultural Center will close its 2026-27 Celtic Series in spectacular fashion on Wednesday May 5th, when internationally acclaimed Québec ensemble Le Vent du Nord brings its powerful Francophone folk sound back to Lincoln City.
Since forming in 2002, Le Vent du Nord has become one of the leading forces in Québec traditional music, carrying the songs, dance tunes and musical culture of French-speaking Canada to stages around the world.
The five-member group creates a remarkably full acoustic sound using instruments that can include fiddle, accordion, guitar and hurdy-gurdy, along with vocals and the distinctive foot percussion that gives Québécois traditional music much of its rhythmic drive.
Their repertoire reflects Québec’s layered cultural history.
French songs that crossed the Atlantic generations ago evolved alongside musical influences from Ireland, Scotland and elsewhere in North America. Le Vent du Nord embraces all of those strands while adding contemporary arrangements and original compositions.
The ensemble has performed thousands of concerts across multiple continents and earned major honors in Canada and internationally. Along the way, its members have collaborated with musicians from across the traditional music world.
Yet the band’s international reputation rests as much on its live performances as its recordings.
Le Vent du Nord concerts are known for close vocal harmonies, driving instrumental sets, humor and an infectious energy that can turn a seated theater into something that feels much closer to a community dance.
The band has appeared previously in the Cultural Center’s Celtic programming, and its return provides an appropriately joyful conclusion to a nine-concert season devoted to the many directions Celtic and related traditional music can travel.
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| | Hayde is a seven-piece acoustic band from Oslo, Norway, that has captured hearts in both Europe and the US with their unique blend of bluegrass and Nordic folk – a style dubbed “Nordicana”.
With an instrumental acumen (including guitar, double bass, dobro, fiddle, mandolin, banjo, accordion - and four part harmonies) that defines them as musicians with a determined drive and dynamic, the group delivers a fresh take on American roots music wrapped in a finely tuned folk sound. Fronted by Rebekka Nilsson – winner of the 2022 IBMA Momentum “Vocalist of the Year” award – Hayde Bluegrass Orchestra combines original songs, classic tunes, and timeless covers into an energetic and soulful repertoire with beautiful harmonies, infectious melodies, and the well-maintained mix of driving, uptempo tunes and delicate yet demonstrative ballads. | Buy Tickets |
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