Fall Concert and Ceilidh
Celebrating Our Celtic Connections
Featuring Katie McNally and Keith Murphy
with Stephen Thomforde (pipes)
Highland Dance Boston
Boston Scottish Country Dancers
Ceilidh Dancing for All!
Sunday November 23, 2025 at 3:00 p.m.
Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave, Somerville, MA 02143
Join us in this lively, family-friendly space to enjoy Scottish music and dance, this time with a Canadian flavor. Tickets are general admission. The bar will be open, and snacks will be available. We promise you a joyous blend of music, highland dancing, and country dancing - onstage and for everyone. Bring the kids, bring the grandparents!
About the artists
Katie McNally
Katie McNally grew up playing Scottish and Cape Breton music
near Boston, Massachusetts and currently tours with her own projects,
Pine Tree Flyers and the Katie McNally Trio. A member of the
cross-genre fiddle supergroup, Childsplay, Katie has also toured
with Karan Casey, John Whelan, and Galician bagpiper Carlos Núñez.
Equally at home on the concert stage or in the dance hall, she has appeared
at Celtic Colours, Celtic Connections, Newport Folk Festival, and
The Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, as well as countless folk venues
throughout North America and Europe. In addition to her busy touring schedule,
she is the artistic director of the Boston States Fiddle Camp at Potash Hill
in Marlboro, Vermont and is a devoted educator who teaches regularly at
fiddle camps across the country and gives private lessons at her home in
Portland, Maine.
Visit Katie’s website here.
Keith Murphy
A native of Newfoundland, Keith’s traditional song repertoire is based in
Eastern Canada and Quebec as well as his current home, Vermont. His direct and intimate
style of traditional singing in English and French infuses old ballads and songs with a
powerful immediacy while his rhythmic and percussive finger
style of guitar playing brings new shape and color to his songs.
Keith is an accomplished composer and arranger in the realm of traditional
music and has also composed for theater and film. He is a featured performer
on well over a dozen recordings and a guest musician on numerous others. His
versions of traditional songs have inspired recordings by other groups including
Solas, Uncle Earl and Great Big Sea. Several of his compositions have been featured
on the recent Ken Burns documentary on the Roosevelts.
Keith is a faculty member of the Brattleboro Music Center (BMC) and the artistic
director of the BMC’s Northern Roots Traditional Music Festival in Brattleboro,
Vermont which he founded in 2008. He was a featured performer in the Boston Revels
2016 Christmas show Valse Noel, and he is the music director for the WGBH Boston
public radio’s annual Celtic Sojourn St Patick’s Day concerts held at Sanders Theater
and elsewhere in New England.
Visit Keith’s website here.
Stephen Thomforde
Stephen began playing the Great Highland pipes at age twelve and has
since added small and border pipes to his repertoire. Growing up near
Philadelphia, Stephen was immersed in the vibrant folk scene from a young age.
He began with contra and English dancing and discovered Scottish country dance
while working at Pinewoods Camp in Plymouth in 2010. He's been hooked ever since.
In addition to playing with the Catamount Pipe Band in Montpelier, VT,
Stephen is an accomplished dancer, having performed with the Red Thistle
Dancers in Palo Alto, CA, and the Boston Scottish Country Dancers.
Stephen also handcrafts Scottish bagpipes and pipe-themed gifts.
Visit Stephen's website here.
Highland Dance Boston
Highland Dance Boston is a performing company that specializes in the
traditional and contemporary dances of Scotland. The company includes
competitive highland dancers, teachers of Scottish dance, and musicians.
Their repertoire includes many exciting choreographies of traditional
highland and step dances, as well as some original pieces based on
highland dance vocabulary. The group was formed in 2002 by Robert McOwen
and Karen Campbell Mahoney. It has performed at the New England Folk Festival
and Gaelic Roots and in all the Boston Branch’s November celebrations.
Their founder, Robert McOwen, is once again Artistic Director of this
year’s concert.
Highland Dance Boston website
Boston Scottish Country Dancers
The Boston Scottish Country Dancers are the performing group of the
Boston Branch of the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society (RSCDS).
The group has performed at the New England Folk Festival, the Dance
for World Community, highland games, Burns’ Nights, town fairs, retirement
communities, children's events, church functions, and weddings. A
udience participation is the highlight of many performances.
About the Boston Scottish Country Dancers
About the venue
https://artsatthearmory.org/
The Armory has its own parking lot, an overflow lot, and nearby on-street parking
is free on Sundays. The Armory is also accessible from the T, either from the
Green Line at Magoun Square or the Red Line at Davis Square.
Google maps directions to Arts at the Armory