Celtic music sensations Lunasa and Luminere will bring holiday music to Chocolate Church

BATH — Maine audiences embrace and identify with Celtic music and during the holiday season that connection is even stronger. It is in that spirit that the Chocolate Church Arts Center, 804 Washington St., has incorporated the enchanting and unmistakable rhythmic sounds of Irish music during this holiday season.

will kick off the holiday on Friday, Nov. 29, and Luminere will perform Saturday, Dec. 7, with Irish Christmas in America. Both shows start at 7:30 p.m.

Lúnasa are internationally acknowledged as being the finest Irish instrumental band of recent times. Their inventive arrangements and bass driven grooves have steered Irish acoustic music into surprising new territory. The recordings have been hailed as some of the best and most important world music albums anywhere, while the blend of intelligence, innovation, virtuosity, and passion has brought them to the forefront of Celtic music. Tickets are $22 in advance.

The amazing Sony-recording vocal group Lumiere are featured in the elaborate Irish Christmas in America production. The musical strength of Éilís Kennedy and Pauline Scanlon is the ability to be immersed fully in their local tradition of songs and strong people, and to communicate that to as wide and diverse an audience as possible, without diluting their authenticity. Tickets are $28 in advance.

Tickets are available online www.chocolatechurcharts.org or by calling the box office at 207-442-8455.