Summer BCMFest is a go, in virtual format, on July 5

Summer BCMFest – the warm-weather counterpart to the annual winter BCMFest (Boston Celtic Music Fest) – will take place in a virtual format on July 5, featuring performances by the likes of fiddler Katie McNally; fiddle-harp duo Jenna Moynihan and Màiri Chaimbeul; and Cape Breton-style fiddler Leland Martin.

A program of Cambridge nonprofit Passim, which hosts BCMFest events at Club Passim in Harvard Square, BCMFest celebrates Greater Boston’s richness of music, song and dance from Irish, Scottish, Cape Breton and other Celtic traditions.

Given the likelihood of continued restrictions on public gatherings due to the coronavirus pandemic, BCMFest organizers opted for an online version of the summer festival, which is marking its sixth year.  

 Here’s a look at some of the performers confirmed thus far:

•Katie McNally, who grew up in the Greater Boston area and has been a part of BCMFest since her early teens, has built on her foundations in the Scottish and Cape Breton fiddle traditions to create a sound that reflects her forays into American, Galician and other folk music, as well as her original work.

•Since meeting at the Berklee College of Music, upstate New York native Jenna Moynihan and Màiri Chaimbeul, from a musical family in the Isle of Skye, have forged a collaboration that fuses Scottish and Appalachian/old-timey music, with elements of classical and jazz. 

•A frequent leader and participant at sessions in the Greater Boston area and elsewhere, Leland Martin has been strongly influenced by New England and Canadian fiddle styles and amassed an extensive library of well-known and esoteric tunes.

All Summer BCMFest performances will be available via passim.org/streams. Festival details and updates will be posted at the BCMFest website, passim.org/bcmfest, and on social media.


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