Éilís Kennedy & Peter Blanchette

Acclaimed archguitarist Peter Blanchette and renowned Irish

singer Éilís Kennedy join forces in a richly textured program pairing the timeless beauty of Irish

traditional song with the evocative power of one of America's greatest poets, Emily Dickinson. A

native Irish speaker from County Kerry, Kennedy brings luminous interpretations of Irish

language songs, while the duo also premieres This World is not Conclusion—Blanchette’s newly

composed settings of Dickinson’s poems for his self-designed archguitar and voice. When

Kennedy arrived in the Pioneer Valley in 2024, she realized she had passed Dickinson’s home in

Amherst en route to Blanchette’s in Northampton. The two soon discovered a shared reverence

for Dickinson’s work. Over the past year, they have collaborated in Ireland and New England to

create what Blanchette calls “songs inspired by the radical slant of Emily’s genius. I love

working conceptually as a composer—what if Chopin were to compose lute-songs to Emily’s

brilliant, brief bursts of language?”

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