Celebrate the winter solstice with traditional Celtic and Balkan tunes, seasonal songs and poems, strings plucked and bowed, and woodwinds and drums to fire up the longest night of the year. A tradition for many years, the concert brings together four friends who love to create new musical compositions and arrangements to share with their audience. “This is world music in the holiday tradition including Greenthal’s superb originals,” writes Chris Lunn, editor of northwest music quarterly Ancient Victorys. SeaMuse, comprised of Stanley Greenthal, Christos Govetas, Kip Greenthal and Kim Goldov, plays music from Greece, Turkey and the Balkans, as well as songs and instrumentals from Brittany, Scotland and Ireland. A mix of traditional and original, the music and poetry touch on themes of love, challenges of the times and stories from life experience. This year, in the spirit of holiday giving, SeaMuse is donating 25 percent of the proceeds from the concert to support the Lopez Island Family Resource Center.
Stanley is an internationally acclaimed songwriter and instrumentalist who stretches musical borders from Scotland, Ireland, Brittany, Greece and the Balkans. He sings and plays guitar, bouzouki, laouto and lavta (Greek and Turkish lutes). Sing Out! Magazine described his latest recording, “First Song,” as, “A fascinating voyage to the highlands of Scotland, the Breton lands and the islands of the Mediterranean.”
Govetas sings and plays clarinet, oud and bouzouki, and regularly performs with his group Dromeno (www.dromeno.com) in Seattle and across the United States and Canada. Govetas and his wife Ruth Hunter are winners of the 2017 Gordon Ekvall Tracie Memorial Award in recognition of their excellence in ethnic performance and significant contributions to traditional cultural arts. Govetas has recorded and performed with Bill Frisell’s group, The Intercontinentals.
Kip Greenthal sings harmony and plays the ancient bowed psaltry, as well as percussion. With SeaMuse, Kip also adds compelling spoken word pieces set to musical accompaniment.
Goldov plays five-string violin, double bass, and soprano glockenspiel. Goldov has performed on glockenspiel and xylophone since his early years in his neighborhood Orff ensemble. More recently he performed in the Radost Folk Ensemble, Freylakh Klezmer Band, Yeni Ses (Turkish traditional and modern folk), and the Bucharest Drinking Team.
The concert is Saturday, Dec. 15, 7:30 p.m. at the Lopez Center. Tickets are $15 adults, $6 youths 6 to 17, kids 5 and under free and may be purchased online and from the Lopez Center Office, also at Paper Scissors on the Rock, Blossom Organic Grocery and Lopez Bookshop. For more information, visit www.lopezcenter.org and seamuse.net or call 360-468-2203.
