Celebrated fiddler, composer, and violinist Mark O’Connor is marking the holidays again this year with his An Appalachian Christmas tour, featuring his wife, fellow fiddler Maggie O’Connor.
This year they will be performing music from their new album, A Christmas Duo, released last month. It contains 13 newly-recorded tracks of holiday favorites like Christmas Time’s a Comin’, Silent Night, What Child Is This?, and many others. Songs mix Mark and Maggie’s uncommon instrumental ability with Maggie’s fine singing voice. She plays fiddle, while Mark adds his own violin, plus guitar and mandolin.
The result is a very homey, comfortable set of Christmas music you’ll want to add to your collection.
Here’s a sample in the first single, The Holly and the Ivy.
A Christmas Duo is available now from popular download and streaming services online, and on audio CD from Amazon.
Mark and Maggie have also recently signed with The Kurland Agency in Boston for exclusive representation. Their client list reads like a who’s who of contemporary jazz artists, along with selected folk and bluegrass acts like Twisted Pine and Michael Cleveland.
O’Connor says that they feel quite privileged to be among this roster of greats.
“We are thrilled for our duo to be represented by a world-class music company such as The Kurland Agency that’s had decades of experience booking the virtuosos of American music. And that included my teacher Stephane Grappelli way back when I toured with him as a teenager. This is indeed a full circle moment. For Maggie and me to be on the roster alongside present-day greats is an honor.”
More information about Mark and Maggie’s An Appalachian Christmas tour can be found online. They have dates coming up in Charlotte and Greensboro, NC, Minneapolis and Portland, and in Redding, CA and Seattle.
You can check out all the Christmas bluegrass we have covered at Bluegrass Today by following this link.
