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The E-Sheet(R) is provided as conclusive evidence that the ad appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on the date and page indicated.

Description: Color Type: Publication Date: 01/23/2009 Section/Page/Zone: E/E001/All Size: Advertiser: Insertion Number: Client Name: Ad Number: W Milwaukee Journal Sentinel JSOnline.

10E On Stage: Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood bring comedy to the Pabst Theater. 12E Good Morning: Comics, columnists and more.

1 The E-Sheet(R) is provided as conclusive evidence that the ad appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on the date and page indicated.you may not create derivative works, or in any way exploit or repurpose any content. Description: Color Type: Publication Date: 01/23/2009 Section/Page/Zone: E/E001/All Size: Advertiser: Insertion Number: Client Name: Ad Number: W Milwaukee Journal Sentinel JSOnline.com/cue Friday January 23, 2009 E WEEKEND CUE FRIDAY Movies: Indie films make triumphant return to UWM Union Theatre. 3E Dining: Carol Deptolla reviews Harley s Motor. 10E On Stage: Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood bring comedy to the Pabst Theater. 12E Good Morning: Comics, columnists and more E HOURS 10 this morning The roots of Irish soul INSIDE Fiddler Eileen Ivers gives multimedia Bog Road a world premiere tonight at the Wilson Center. 9E The Florentine Opera will perform Pinocchio in the Betty Brinn Children s Room at the central branch of the Milwaukee Public Library. The 45-minute presentation is the classic Italian fairy tale set to music by Mozart, Donizetti, Offenbach, Pergolesi, Sullivan and Verdi and is sung in English. It is aimed at children ages 4 through W. Wisconsin Ave. Information: (414) a.m. Saturday The Mitchell Park Domes has its second annual Chinese New Year celebrations running through 7 p.m. Events include a dragon parade, music and crafts, Chinese calligraphy, a lantern show, presentations on holistic and alternative medicines, Chinese language lessons and dumpling-making for kids. The event ends with a light show. 524 S. Layton Blvd. Domes admission: $5.50 general, $4 kids. Information: (414) or see chinese.org. 8 p.m. Saturday Alliance Francaise and the Coffee House have a joint benefit concert with Les Freres Soucie (the Soucie Brothers), singing traditional songs of France and Quebec. 631 N. 19th St. $10 donation requested. Information: (414) (Coffee House) or (414) (Alliance Francaise). Freebie The Suckow Family Art Gallery at the Schauer Arts and Activities Center has a reception for the Wisconsin Regional Art Program, with work by 25 regional artists on display, from 1 to 2 p.m. Saturday. 147 N. Rural St., Hartford. Mary-Liz Shaw

COVER STORY The E-Sheet(R) is provided as conclusive evidence that the ad appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on the date and page indicated.

2 COVER STORY The E-Sheet(R) is provided as conclusive evidence that the ad appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on the date and page indicated.you may not create derivative works, or in any way exploit or repurpose any content. Description: Color Type: Publication Date: 01/23/2009 Section/Page/Zone: E/E009/All Size: Advertiser: Insertion Number: Ad Number: Client Name: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Friday, January 23, 2009 Fiddle with the past Irish show traces joyful jigs, laments of loss across seas By ELAINE SCHMIDT Special to the Journal Sentinel E veryone s Irish on St. Patrick s Day. Possibly. But bringing an international group of performers to Milwaukee on a January weekend to give the world premiere of a show about the way Irish music, dance and culture have thrived despite an often-heartbreaking diaspora well, that takes a truly Irish soul. Internationally renowned Celtic fiddler Eileen Ivers is the Irish soul who will present the premiere of her new multimedia piece, Beyond the Bog Road, tonight and Saturday night at Brookfield s Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts. Ivers has been collecting, researching and writing music to trace the journey made by Irish music, dance and storytelling from its homeland to sometimes surprising destinations. Ivers is familiar to Milwaukee audiences from Irish Fest performances, as well as a Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra appearance, where she performed Chris Brubeck s Interplay for Three Violins and Orchestra. The piece, written for Ivers, jazz violinist Regina Carter and classical violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, was broadcast by Milwaukee Public Television. Ivers, who was born in the Bronx to Irish immigrants, spoke about the new piece by phone from her New York home. This is really a wonderful coming together of those musicians and dancers that have gone before us with those in our generation playing this music and doing these dances; and those who will be playing music and dancing in the coming generations, she said. Her father s work in the airline industry gave Ivers the luxury of flying to Ireland to spend summers with her grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, soaking up the IF YOU GO What: Beyond the Bog Road When: 8 tonight and Saturday Where: Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts, W. Capitol Drive, Brookfield Tickets: $25-$48; call (262) To get information and directions or to hear some of Ivers music, go to wilson-center.com. IVERS CELTIC DEMO Eileen Ivers and members of Immigrant Soul will give a pre-performance discussion and demonstration on the Irish instruments and stories that make up Beyond the Bog Road from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. Saturday at the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts, W. Capitol Drive, Brookfield. The event is free and open to the public. country s long history and rich culture. I was lucky to have this wonderful balance of growing up in an urban setting in New York and then running around the fields and bogs of Ireland in the summers, she said. Seeing those bog roads, you realize they truly lead into the past of Ireland. The bogs grow about an inch every 25 years, and they re a wonderful preservative, she explained, adding that archaeologists have discovered remnants of a 5,000-year-old civilization in the bog near her mother s birthplace. My parents, like a lot of immigrants of their generation, instilled the love and respect for Irish heritage in their kids and gently encouraged us to take up the Irish traditions, Ivers said. Making connections Ivers cross-cultural upbringing made her acutely aware of the influences of Irish culture on the North American folk music and dance she would see and hear as she played festivals around the country. She explained, with obvious excitement, that she has traced a Cajun tune from Louisiana back to the Acadians of French Canada, where Irish immigrants come into the equation, and from there back to Ireland. She draws similar lines between Appalachian clogging and Irish hard-shoe dancing, and between Appalachian bluegrass tunes and Irish folk melodies. Woven into the joyful, infectious jigs and reels and heartbreaking laments of loss and leaving is video by filmmaker DJ Mendel that includes footage of Ivers grandparents and other family members working in the peat bogs in 1960s and 70s. It s really haunting to see these people working hard making hay or digging the bog by day and then playing music in the evening, Ivers said. Some of the people in the images have since died. Sometimes I can t even look at the screen I just can t go there, Ivers said. Finding the Irish within Ivers will be joined at the Wilson Center by a heady roster of performers, including her own band, Immigrant Soul; Dublin-born Irish dancing champion Padraic Moyles, who s taking a week off from Riverdance for this weekend s performances; Dublin-born vocalist Niamh Parsons; young dancers from the Cashell Dennehy School of Irish Dance; and Bronxborn vocalist Tommy McDonnell. McDonnell, who was brought by Ivers from a career in soul to a career in Irish music, has found the project incredibly illuminating. I never knew that all these American songs I loved and gravitated to were influenced by Irish music, McDonnell said recently, speaking with the unmistakable accent of his native Bronx. Deep down in my soul, I was gravitating to an Irish thing. Working on the Bog Road project has made McDonnell realize something more personal as well. I have cousins and aunts and uncles in Ireland who are slowly passing away I ve got to sit down and get the inside stories and get them on video, he said. Ivers and McDonnell pointed out that, while the show traces the journey of Irish music, it also looks at how Irish music and folk music of other cultures are interrelated and complementary. Sections late in the Bog Road piece weave African rhythms and dance with Irish music, painting a picture of our modern-day, American cultural mélange. Back to her own roots At the heart of the piece, of course, will be Ivers herself. An exuberant, passionate player, known for her fiery improvisations and completely engrossing performances, she is the musical equivalent of a spinning mirror ball. Ivers continues her pilgrimages to Ireland today, returning to the home she and her husband have built on family land. In this crazy world of playing music all over the place and the joy of performing onstage and really living in the moment, it s really helpful to go back there to roots of this music, she said. She also enjoys the chance to get back to people playing in the local pubs. It makes you remember why you love it all in the first place, she said. DESIGN BY THERESA SCHIFFER / TSCHIFFER@JOURNALSENTINEL.COM 9E

3 Fiddle with the past Irish show traces joyful jigs, laments of loss across seas BY ELAINE SCHMIDT Everyone's Irish on St. Patrick's Day. Possibly. But bringing an international group of performers to Milwaukee on a January weekend to give the world premiere of a show about the way Irish music, dance and culture have thrived despite an often-heartbreaking diaspora - well, that takes a truly Irish soul. Internationally renowned Celtic fiddler Eileen Ivers is the Irish soul who will present the premiere of her new multimedia piece, "Beyond the Bog Road," Friday and Saturday night at Brookfield's Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts. Ivers has been collecting, researching and writing music to trace the journey made by Irish music, dance and storytelling from its homeland to sometimes surprising destinations. Ivers is familiar to Milwaukee audiences from Irish Fest performances, as well as a Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra appearance, where she performed Chris Brubeck's "Interplay for Three Violins and Orchestra." The piece, written for Ivers, jazz violinist Regina Carter and classical violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, was broadcast by Milwaukee Public Television. Ivers, who was born in the Bronx to Irish immigrants, spoke about the new piece by phone from her New York home. "This is really a wonderful coming together of those musicians and dancers that have gone before us - with those in our generation playing this music and doing these dances; and those who will be playing music and dancing in the coming generations," she said. Her father's work in the airline industry gave Ivers the luxury of flying to Ireland to spend summers with her grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, soaking up the country's long history and rich culture.

4 page 2 of 3 "I was lucky to have this wonderful balance of growing up in an urban setting in New York and then running around the fields and bogs of Ireland in the summers," she said. "Seeing those bog roads, you realize they truly lead into the past of Ireland." "The bogs grow about an inch every 25 years, and they're a wonderful preservative," she explained, adding that archaeologists have discovered remnants of a 5,000-year-old civilization in the bog near her mother's birthplace. "My parents, like a lot of immigrants of their generation, instilled the love and respect for Irish heritage in their kids and gently encouraged us to take up the Irish traditions," Ivers said. Making connections Ivers' cross-cultural upbringing made her acutely aware of the influences of Irish culture on the North American folk music and dance she would see and hear as she played festivals around the country. She explained, with obvious excitement, that she has traced a Cajun tune from Louisiana back to the Acadians of French Canada, where Irish immigrants come into the equation, and from there back to Ireland. She draws similar lines between Appalachian clogging and Irish hard-shoe dancing, and between Appalachian bluegrass tunes and Irish folk melodies. Woven into the joyful, infectious jigs and reels and heartbreaking laments of loss and leaving is video by filmmaker DJ Mendel that includes footage of Ivers' grandparents and other family members working in the peat bogs in 1960s and '70s. "It's really haunting to see these people working hard making hay or digging the bog by day and then playing music in the evening," Ivers said. Some of the people in the images have since died. "Sometimes I can't even look at the screen - I just can't go there," Ivers said. Finding the Irish within Ivers will be joined at the Wilson Center by a heady roster of performers, including her own band, Immigrant Soul; Dublin-born Irish dancing champion Padraic Moyles, who's taking a week off from "Riverdance" for this weekend's performances; Dublin-born vocalist Niamh Parsons; young dancers from the Cashell Dennehy School of Irish Dance; and Bronx-born vocalist Tommy McDonnell. McDonnell, who was brought by Ivers from a career in soul to a career in Irish music, has found the project incredibly illuminating.

5 page 3 of 3 "I never knew that all these American songs I loved and gravitated to were influenced by Irish music," McDonnell said recently, speaking with the unmistakable accent of his native Bronx. "Deep down in my soul, I was gravitating to an Irish thing." Working on the "Bog Road" project has made McDonnell realize something more personal as well. "I have cousins and aunts and uncles in Ireland who are slowly passing away - I've got to sit down and get the inside stories and get them on video," he said. Ivers and McDonnell pointed out that, while the show traces the journey of Irish music, it also looks at how Irish music and folk music of other cultures are interrelated and complementary. Sections late in the "Bog Road" piece weave African rhythms and dance with Irish music, painting a picture of our modern-day, American cultural mélange. Back to her own roots At the heart of the piece, of course, will be Ivers herself. An exuberant, passionate player, known for her fiery improvisations and completely engrossing performances, she is the musical equivalent of a spinning mirror ball. Ivers continues her pilgrimages to Ireland today, returning to the home she and her husband have built on family land. "In this crazy world of playing music all over the place and the joy of performing onstage and really living in the moment, it's really helpful to go back there to roots of this music," she said. She also enjoys the chance to get back to people playing in the local pubs. "It makes you remember why you love it all in the first place," she said.

EILEEN IVERS. Critical acclaim for artist

EILEEN IVERS. Critical acclaim for artist EILEEN IVERS Critical acclaim for artist She suggests the future of the Celtic fiddle. - Geoffrey Himes, The Washington Post Sizzling, Afro-Latin-Irish fusion music If New York is a melting pot, this band