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CCHAP Transition Party: Performance by Dan Foster, Rodbel Virula, & Kevin Doyle

PerformerPerformed by Dan Foster English

PerformerPerformed by Rodbel Virula Mexican

PerformerPerformed by Kevin Doyle

Date2018 September 20

Mediumborn digital video

DimensionsDuration: 1 Minutes, 28 Seconds

ClassificationsGraphics

Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections

DescriptionVideo of Dan Foster playing the Irish fiddle and Rodbel Virula playing the mariachi guitarron in a duet performance with Kevin Doyle dancing at the Connecticut Historical Society on September 20, 2018.

Object number2015.196.284.2

CopyrightIn Copyright

NotesSubject Note: On September 20, 2018, the Connecticut Historical Society hosted a celebration of new CCHAP Director Kate Schramm and outgoing CCHAP Director Lynne Williamson. Many artists and community members who had worked with CCHAP over the years attended. Several artists performed, either solo or in impromptu jam sessions, in the spirit of friendship and creativity.

Biographical Note: Kevin Doyle is a renowned traditional Irish step dancer based in Rhode Island. His dance is devoted to and inspired by steps brought to the United States by his Irish-born mother in the 1930s. He performs old style traditional Irish step dance and American tap dance. A lifelong dancer and performer, Kevin was a U.S. Champion Irish step dancer in his early competitive years, and has been entertaining audiences ever since with his traditional style of "close to the ground" rhythms and intricate foot work as an artist, a choreographer, producer, and teacher. Since 1996, Kevin has been the dancer and more recently, percussionist, for the Celtic band Pendragon, and he performs as part of the ensemble Roscommon Soles. Kevin has been featured in Secrets of the Sole, a documentary on Irish dance released in 2008 by dancer, choreographer, and director Kieran Jordan. In 2004 and 2008, Kevin starred in the Boston-based A Christmas Celtic Sojourn, produced by WGBH's Brian O'Donovan, which appeared in theaters in Boston, Worcester, and Providence. He won a prestigious National Heritage Fellowship award from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2014. Kevin served as a teaching artist in Year 13 (2010-2011) of CCHAP’s Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program, mentoring student Nicole LeBlanc in Irish dance, and they presented their work at a concert in Lowell MA with two other Irish music and dance apprenticeships from the Mass Folk Arts Program, and repeated the concert in RI at the Blackstone Summer Solstice Festival. Kevin has also taught his daughter Maureen who often performs with him. Kevin performed at one of CCHAP’s outdoor concerts in 2018 and at the Passing It On Apprenticeship 20th anniversary exhibit opening event at CHS in 2018. See also http://www.kevindoyledance.com/

Biographical Note: Dan Foster, a fiddle player originally from York, England, moved to the U.S. in 2015 and settled in Connecticut and later Massachusetts. Dan began playing violin at age 7, then fell in love with traditional fiddling at 18. He has studied with master fiddlers in Ireland and has developed a career playing fiddle for Irish dance competitions, as well as teaching widely in New England. Dan’s traditional music group Daymark tours regularly and he also plays with Caravan of Thieves. He has taught in CCHAP’s Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program, mentoring students Mark Bodah and Eva Meier, and has performed with musicians at three of CCHAP’s outdoor concerts and at the Apprenticeship 20th anniversary exhibit closing event at CHS in 2018.

Biographical Note: Alejandro “Rodbel” Virula trained as a guitarrón player, and has expanded his skills to become a trumpet player and singer. He moved to Connecticut from Las Vegas in 2016, along with several other musicians, to teach mariachi music in the Wallingford Mexican community up to 2025 when he moved back to Las Vegas. In 2019 Rodbel became director of the Wallingford-based performing group Mariachi Mexico Antiguo. They were invited to play at concerts, festivals, community celebrations, and restaurants throughout the Northeast, establishing a reputation for providing exciting traditional mariachi music that presents a traditional sound and approach. Rodbel and the group recorded 10 videos for the Connecticut Historical Society’s YouTube project to connect folk artists to audiences during the Covid quarantine. He also arranged new repertoire for the group, to keep increasing their musical library. Rodbel taught an apprentice on guitarrón as part of the Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program in 2016-2017. Rodbel won a prestigious Connecticut Office of the Arts Fellowship in 2021.

Additional audio, video, and/or photographic materials exist in the archive relating to this event and artists.

Cataloging Note: This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-245929-OMS-20.

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