Award-Winning Trio Simple Gifts at SBU

Three women plus 12 instruments equals one good time when the trio Simple Gifts takes the stage at 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 11, in the sixth concert of the Friends of Good Music season at St. Bonaventure University’s Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts.

Drawing on an impressive variety of ethnic folk styles, this award-winning trio plays everything from lively Irish jigs and down-home American reels to hard-driving Klezmer frailachs and haunting Gypsy melodies, spicing the mix with the distinctive rhythms of Balkan dance music, the lush sounds of Scandinavian twin fiddling, and original compositions written in a traditional style.

Combining tradition with innovation, Simple Gifts creates some of the finest arrangements in folk music today: swing fiddle creeps into a Romanian dance, spoons show up in an Irish reel, and the concertina ventures far beyond styles considered traditional for that instrument.

Based in the hills of Pennsylvania, the trio – Linda Littleton, Rachel Hall and Karen Hirshorn – play an amazing array of instruments, switching with ease among two violins, concertina, mandolin, banjolin, recorders, bowed psaltery, hammered dulcimer, baritone fiddle, guitar, piano, and percussion.

Simple Gifts is frequently complimented on their stage presence, which is warm, personal, and accented with humor. The musicians deliver their music with rare intensity and contagious enthusiasm. It’s obvious that Simple Gifts loves the music they play and knows how to share their excitement with the audience.

“Their program feels like a world tour of music,” said Ludwig Brunner, program director at the Quick Center. “Their performances are full of infectious enthusiasm and tremendous energy. These women will raise the roof of the Quick Center on their return visit.”

This performance is supported in part by the New York State Council on the Arts and is partially supported by a grant from Pennsylvania Performing Arts on Tour.

Tickets are $20 at full cost, $16 for St. Bonaventure staff and senior citizens, and $5 for students. For tickets and information, call the Quick Center box office at (716) 375-2494.

For each Friends of Good Music performance, the Quick Center will open its galleries one hour before the performance and keep them open throughout the intermission. Regular gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and noon to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Museum admission is free and open to the public year round. For more information, visit www.sbu.edu/quickcenter.