Mark O’Connor coming to Orcas Center in “Crossing Bridges” concert

||| FROM ORCAS ISLAND CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL |||

Mark O’Connor

Orcas Center and the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival are thrilled to welcome three-time Grammy Award winner Mark O’Connor back to Orcas Island for his “Crossing Bridges” concert on Sunday, March 19, at 7:00 pm.

O’Connor will be joined by his wife, Grammy-winner Maggie O’Connor, for the first half of the concert. The duo will perform both classic tunes and songs and O’Connor’s original compositions highlighting violin, guitar, mandolin, and vocals.

In the second half, Mark O’Connor will read excerpts from his new book, Crossing Bridges: My Journey from Child
Prodigy to Fiddler Who Dared the World, a memoir that documents his experiences as a child prodigy and his personal story of the trials and tribulations of growing up as a traveling musician. Interspersed throughout the reading will be music samples and a question-and-answer period. Attendees can meet with the artists and buy O’Connor’s book in the lobby after the show.

O’Connor won national contests on three different instruments as a teen, and at age 13 he was the youngest person ever to win the Grand Master Fiddler Championships, competing against professionals and amateurs of all ages. He has gone on to translate his signature fiddling style into a whole new teaching method, the O’Connor Method™ for violin and strings, hailed by teachers as filling a significant gap in music education.

O’Connor was a guest of the 2009 Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival in two rousing concerts of his bluegrass- and jazz-tinged classical compositions. His works include highly-praised ensemble and orchestral pieces, which he has performed and recorded with Yo-Yo Ma, Renée Fleming, David Grisman, Jerry Douglas, Stéphane Grappelli, Edgar Meyer, Roseanne Cash, and the London Philharmonic, and he often collaborates with director Ken Burns on soundtracks for his documentaries.

For more information and to purchase tickets, please see oicmf.org or orcascenter.org. The concert is also available via livestream. To view, log on to orcascenter.org at showtime.

Free OICMF Friends of Joyce tickets for students 18 and younger and their families are also available for this event! For information and to purchase Friends of Joyce tickets, please call the OICMF office at 360-376-6636 or email info@oicmf.org.