The spirit of St. Patrick’s Day came to the Mission City early this year as The Gallowglasses played the Triton Free Fridays event at the Triton Museum of Art on March 7.
The Gallowglasses, named after Scottish mercenaries serving in Ireland during the 12th and 13th Century, played traditional Celtic folk music to a crowd of over 120 people in the Triton’s Permanent Gallery. The large crowd, which required all of the available chairs and other seating in the museum, contained a wide age range, from young children through adults well into their golden years.
Prior to each song, Irish Bouzouki, mandola and mandolin player, Michael McNelly, gave a brief overview of the origin of the tune, giving the crowd a history lesson or laugh.
Triton Free Fridays are presented by the City of Santa Clara in conjunction with the Triton, Santa Clara Performing Arts Foundation and Santa Clara Sister Cities Association. Next month, Triton Free Fridays will present a performance by the Lyric Theatre (www.lyrictheatre.org) who will sing selections from Gilbert and Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore with a role–reversal twist – the men will sing the women’s roles and the women will sing men’s parts. Triton Free Fridays with the Lyric Theatre is Friday, April 10 at 7:30 p.m., 1505 Warburton Ave. All performances are all–ages and free. Visit www.facebook.com/tritonfridayperformances for more information.
