Paddy Moloney Speaks on The Chieftains Upcoming Concert with the Houston Symphony

To play with the symphony will be something unique and tremendous. It means half the program will be music that we’ve played with symphonies over the past 30 years, a little bit of Mozart with an Irish jig added. But the program will be a real Chieftains concert. We’ll give a taste of ourselves first and then we’ll be joined by friends. We have a pipe band from Houston and dancers from Houston coming.

We also have our good friend astronaut Cady Coleman joining us. Celebrating The Chieftains 50 years, we have a track on the new CD Voice of Ages which is called “The Chieftains In Orbit.” Cady plays the flute, and she asked Matt Molloy if he had a spare one she could bring on the International Space Station, and she asked me for a whistle. I provided her with some music, too, and she sent down the tune “Fanny Power” from space to us. She floated around and played it. I used that as it was and added The Chieftains to it later. We’re actually performing it in concert as part of our show. Cady herself has kindly offered to come on stage and play the tune with us in Houston, and she’ll join us in the finale, too.

Houston is very dear to my heart. We’ve played so many concerts there over the years, and I’ve traveled to Houston quite a lot because my son was with NASA. The people there in Houston are absolutely marvelous and very supportive. The last orchestral performance we did was with the Tokyo Philharmonic just before Christmas and it was a roaring success. I’m just dying to let loose on the great supporters we have in Houston.

Don’t miss the Chieftains LIVE performance with the Houston Symphony for one night only on Friday February 15, 2013 7:30 PM. CLICK HERE for tickets and more information.

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