PORTLAND – Childsplay is returning to Portland with its violin concert extravaganza at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 3, in Portland High School, 284 Cumberland Ave.

Childsplay features 35 fiddlers, performing on instruments handcrafted by the same violin maker, Boston luthier Bob Childs, who got his start by working with Ivy Mann of Orrington. Childs’ artistry was recently featured on the cover of Fortune Small Business magazine.

The cabaret-style concert presents virtuoso musicians in a many styles, including six prominent Swedish fiddlers performing traditional music of Sweden, as well as several of Maine’s finest fiddlers, including fiddler-vocalist Joyce Andersen and Ellen Gawler, who’s been touring Maine playing concerts and dances for more than 20 years.

Also performing will be fiddlers from all over the United States, representing Appalachian, bluegrass, Irish, Scottish, Acadian, Cape Breton and American old-time fiddle styles. The concert also will feature vocalist Aoife O’Donovan, Appalachian dancer Amy Fenton-Shine, Irish step dancers and All-Ireland champion Irish harpist Kathleen Guilday.

Some of the featured performers include All-Ireland fiddle champion Sheila Falls-Keohane, and Boston-based fiddlers Mark Simos, who won the Cliff Top Fiddle contest in West Virginia last year, and Hannaeke Cassel, the national Scottish fiddle champion.

For more information, people can visit www.childsplay.org.

Tickets are $20 in advance or at the door, and are available at Portland Green Grocer, 211 Commercial St., Portland; Macbeans Music, 141A Main St., Brunswick; or Bull Moose Music stores (additional $2 surcharge). Tickets are also available by sending a self-addressed stamped envelope to: Childsplay, c/o Mary Lamey, 58 Village Brook Lane, Unit 15, Natick, MA 01760, (508) 653-3482.


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