Fiddlers to play tonight

The Celtic Fiddle Festival, a trio of renowned violinists, will bring traditional European folk music to the stage of the Buskirk-Chumley Theater tonight at 7:30.\nThree fiddlers -- Kevin Burke of Ireland, Johnny Cunningham of Scotland and Christian Lemaitre of the French province of Brittany -- make up the traveling festival and play both solo and as a trio during the program.\nTonight's concert is co-sponsored by the Lotus Education and Arts Foundation and the IU Dean of Faculties office. The show is also part of the Lotus concert series and IU's Arts Week celebration.\nLotus Executive Director Lee Williams said the festival should be well-received.\n"There is a large population in Bloomington that loves Celtic music, and there are a lot of fiddlers in town," he said.\nWilliams said performances by the Celtic Fiddle Festival are rarities because the trio has toured only three times in the last 10 years. He said the concert represents an opportunity for people to learn about Celtic music and culture.\n"Each fiddler will bring his own cultural tradition to the concert," he said.\nAssociate Professor of music Emile Naoumoff said Celtic heritage includes more than just the well-known Irish, Scottish and Breton traditions. Naoumoff said the Celts originated in what is now Germany more than 1,000 years ago and eventually migrated all across Europe. In addition to the British Isles and Brittany, he said, the Celts' influence is seen today in Spain, Italy and Eastern Europe.\nNaoumoff, in addition to his duties at the School of Music, is a pianist who recently recorded a CD of Celtic music with his wife, bassoonist Catherine Marchese, and bassoonist and accordion player Sarah Stevens-Estabrook.\nHe said the Celts were a peaceful people who "never imposed their music but adapted their music to the music of other people." For example, he noted that during the production of his CD, he realized numerous similarities between Irish ballads and popular music of his native Bulgaria.\nNaoumoff added that although the bagpipes, fiddle and flute are the instruments traditionally associated with Celtic music, other instruments can easily be used when playing the genre. He also said Celtic songs aren't limited to a certain structure.\n"For some purists, Celtic music is only quick dances or nostalgic ballads," he said. "But we discovered there were many different shades of Celtic music."\nTom Zoss, a member of the IU Foundation and of the IU Fine Arts Coordinating Committee, said the University and the town should be proud of tonight's concert.\n"It shows the ability of the Bloomington community to bring people in to perform for us," he said. "Many small towns can't sell enough tickets to bring a group like this to perform"