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Carole Mikita ReportingThis is hand clapping, toe-tapping music at its finest. The Utah Symphony joins forces with international fiddle phenom, Eileen Ivers, this weekend. This world-renowned musician maintains a fascination with all things Irish and takes her talents far and wide to hopefully, she says, spread the joy.
When it comes to Irish music, Eileen Ivers emanates the warmth and magic of it with her flawless fiddle playing. She comes by it naturally.
Eileen Ivers: "About eight-years-old, actually started there and I was intrigued, that's a good word. It was something about the fiddle that really drew me in. My folks are both from Ireland and they played a lot of Irish music in the house."
Every summer the family spent months in Ireland, where young Eileen entered fiddle competitions.
Eileen: "I would compete in these All-Ireland championships every summer, and luckily I won over there, which was kind of unusual for an American person to win, but it helped me kind of stay with the tradition."
Last night an Ogden audience experienced the depth of her talent. Ivers describes the appeal of Irish music as expressing the feelings of the people.
Eileen: "There's a lot of sad songs, emotive songs, just very simple melodies that people can go away humming, that's very real, that describes the pain that they've gone through. And then, on the other end, you have the very upbeat music."
Kudos, she says, to the Utah Symphony players, wonderfully talented musicians; and Utahns, she says, are very appreciative audiences.
Eileen Ivers is in concert at Abravanel Hall with the Utah Symphony tonight and tomorrow night at 8. She then returns to New York City to complete a Christmas CD.
