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| | SimpleGifts, feat. Billy McLaughlin
With 21 years of arranging, recording, and touring, SimpleGifts featuring Billy McLaughlin again finds the one-of-a-kind ensemble in peak creative mode and ready to take longtime fans and newbies alike to someplace special in their annual “ChistmasTide Tour.” The group’s “modern old-world sound” is unique among all the glitzier and commercialized Christmas music made every season.
Celtic whistles, violin, piano, acoustic guitar and percussion are topped off with angelic three-part harmonies giving this legendary ensemble its signature sound and appeal. Audiences of all ages laugh, cry, celebrate and sing along to perhaps the most original versions of Christmas classics you will ever find as heard on the group’s six outstanding holiday CD’s.
Warm up your ears and hearts for the show on Spotify or wherever you stream your music in advance of the ChristmasTide experience live in area theaters!
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| | Them Coulee Boys
With four full-length albums and an EP behind them, including 2019’s Die Happy (produced by Trampled By Turtles’ Dave Simonett on Lo-Hi Records) and 2021’s Namesake (produced by Grammy winner Brian Joseph), the band has garnered international attention and earned press in American Songwriter, Ditty TV, Folk Alley, and The Bluegrass Situation, as well as tours with Trampled By Turtles and a spot on the songwriter’s Cayamo Cruise. In 2020, they were named Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Band to Watch. In 2021, they won Bluegrass/Americana Band of the Year by the Wisconsin Area Music Industry. 2025 marks the release of their 5th album No Fun in the Chrysalis. | Buy Tickets |
| | Mill City String Quartet
The Mill City String Quartet (MCSQ) is an award-winning chamber ensemble from Southeast Minnesota that champions classical music and underrepresented composers. Recent accolades include First Prize at the Fanny Mendelssohn International Competition (2024), Second Prize at the Charleston International Music Competition (Winter 2024), and Third Prize at the International Clara Schumann Competition (2023). MCSQ has been featured six times as Minnesota Public Radio Class Notes artists, performing for thousands of school children. They have also performed the National Anthem for the Minnesota Twins and appeared in Iowa, Florida, and Oregon. Their outreach includes performances at a women's correctional facility and a retirement community in Minnetonka. The quartet consists of Huldah Niles (Artistic Director and Violin), Erika Hoogeveen (Violin), Coca Bochonko (Viola), and Rebeccah Parker Downs (Cello).
Pianist Benjamin Downs will join them. A prize winner in numerous competitions, including the MTNA Young Artist Competition and the Chautauqua International Piano Competition, Benjamin has performed in the U.S., Italy, Germany, and Switzerland. He has played at venues like WMP Concert Hall and the Bowdoin Music Festival and with various symphony orchestras. Benjamin earned his DMA at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, studying under James Tocco, and his PhD in musicology from Stony Brook University. He has received a Fulbright Fellowship, a Paul Sacher Stiftung Research Scholarship, and two DAAD Fellowships for his research, published in several journals. He now resides in the Twin Cities, where he performs, teaches, and directs the Shattuck-St. Mary’s Pre-Conservatory Program. | Buy Tickets |
| | Duo Avila
Sofia Schütte and Ines Guanchez founded Duo Avila in 2019, because they were disappointed with the lack of female and Latin American composers in classical music programming. Their collaboration — Sofia on violin, Ines on piano — happened naturally, built upon years of friendship and musical understanding.
Sofia and Ines met at a summer music camp in 2010 and, being among a handful of Venezuelans attending, forged a strong friendship. In addition, both of their families had moved to Costa Rica for different reasons, and by a quirk of fate, ended up in the same neighborhood, and then moved to Minnesota to attend Shattuck-St. Mary’s Pre-Conservatory program, from which they graduated in 2014 and 2016. They been friends ever since. | Buy Tickets |
| | Robert and the Session Men
2023 ECMA Entertainer of the Year nominee and Showcasing artist Robert Thomas has been a published songwriter for 45 years. His writing credits include, Kenny Rogers Joe Cocker, Bonnie Raitt and the (Dixie) Chicks, among others. Now, after a career writing for major artists, Thomas is touring the original versions of his songs, and new compositions, with a stellar band of his favourite co-writers - the sessionmen - (Ray Legere – fiddle/mandolin, Jon Arsenault – guitar/percussion/backing vocals, and Maxime Forbes – keyboards/backing vocals). The sessionmen are a musical force in their own right, having supported Alison Krauss, Tony Rice, Doc Watson, Rita MacNeil, the Rankins, and the Chieftains. In 2022, Robert Thomas and the sessionmen performed 25 shows to 25 standing ovations in Atlantic Canada, The United States, Germany and Austria. Robert Thomas is master songwriter and entertainer at the peak of his craft, backed by a smoking band…..“an act not to be missed.” | Buy Tickets |
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