SUNDAY, DEC. 6TH AT 4:00PM

TOMÁSEEN FOLEY’S
A CELTIC CHRISTMAS

ST. PAUL’S BY-THE-SEA
EPISCOPAL CHURCH

Join us for a wonderful Irish holiday celebration with storyteller Tomáseen Foley’s A Celtic Christmas.

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A Friend of BFAS

“The most affecting aspect of the evening was the emotion contained within the music and the texts. Between Foley’s stories and so many pieces overflowing with pride and love of home, everyone no doubt left feeling a little more Irish than before. If you can’t cross the Atlantic, at least make your way to A Celtic Christmas.” (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

Tomáseen Foley
Director, Seanchaí (Storyteller)

William Coulte
Music Director, Guitar

Brian Bigley
Uilleann Pipes, Irish Flute, Whistles, Irish Dance

Eimear Arkins
Multi-Instrumentalist, Singer, Irish Dance

Natalie Wagner 
Irish Dance

Tomáseen Foley

Tomáseen Foley grew up on a small farm in the remote parish of Teampall an Ghleanntáin in the West of Ireland – where storytelling ‘was as natural as breathing.’ Each year from Thanksgiving through the Christmas season, his show, Tomáseen Foley’s A Celtic Christmas, plays to critical acclaim and packed concert halls all over the US. He also tours annually with Brian Bigley’s An Irish Rambling House.

In conjunction with the Omaha, Edmonton, and Nashville Symphonies, he was featured as narrator/storyteller in A Celtic Journey. His story, Parcel from America was developed into a musical and produced to critical acclaim at Ireland’s oldest theatre, the Smock Ally Theatre in Dublin in May 2022. He has released several CDs: A Celtic Christmas: Parcel from America; a live recording, The Priest and the Acrobat, and, most recently Celtic Knots: An Irish Love Story.

William Coulter

Music director for Tomáseen Foley’s A Celtic Christmas since 1998, William Coulter is an internationally acclaimed, Grammy-award winning master of the steel-string guitar. He has several Gourd Music label recordings, including his most recent, The Rolling Waves, a collection of original arrangements of folk and original music. Coulter has performed with the Santa Cruz Baroque Festival, Grammy-award winning Apollo’s Fire and many other ensembles. In March of 2016, he debuted Celtic Journey, a full-length pops concert with the Omaha Symphony orchestra.

Collaborations have been a mainstay of his career including tours and recordings with Gourd Music artists Neal Hellman and Barry and Shelley Phillips, classical guitar virtuoso Benjamin Verdery, and Irish flute wizard Brian Finnegan. Tours have taken him around the states and to Ireland, Europe, Taiwan, New Zealand, Chile, and most recently Australia. Coulter teaches classical guitar at UC Santa Cruz and elsewhere. He has earned music degrees from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Brian Bigley

Brian Bigley has studied the uilleann pipes for over thirty years as a player, as well as a sought-out maker of the instrument. He has toured North America and Europe extensively as both a musician and a dancer, appearing in shows such as the Omaha Symphony’s Celtic Journey and Grammy-winning Apollo’s Fire production Christmas on Sugarloaf Mountain – the recording of which made it to number three on the Billboard Charts.

Brian competed with great distinction at the World Irish Dance Championships and has placed second in the senior uilleann piping competition at the All Ireland Fleadh Cheoil. He produces and tours his show called An Irish Rambling House and has several recordings available on CD.

Brian lives near Cleveland, Ohio, with his fiddler wife, Kristen, and their dancing children, James and Kathleen.

Eimear Arkins

Eimear Arkins is a multi-instrumentalist, singer and dancer from Ruan, County Clare, in the west of Ireland. She holds eleven solo All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil titles and has competed in all Ireland, European and World Dance Championships. She has toured with Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann throughout Ireland, Britain, North America and Canada, and represented Ireland in France at Rennes Expo; in Spain in La Noche Negra, in Shanghai, China at World Expo 2010, and in Milan, Italy at World Expo 2015.  Eimear was selected to be part of the Comhaltas National Folk Orchestra of Ireland, and for over eight years has performed with the renowned show, Brứ Borứ.

She has toured and performed with numerous groups, including Cherish the Ladies, The Paul Brock Band, Trinity Irish Dance Ensemble and Téada.

She teaches at St. Louis Irish Arts and has given many workshops in the US and Canada. Eimear was awarded Newcomer of the Year 2019 by liveIreland, and her debut solo album is entitled What’s Next.

Natalie Wagner

A St. Louis native, Natalie fell in love with Irish Dancing at the age of twelve and hasn’t looked back since. After competing at the national and world level, she made her professional debut in 2021 and has loved every minute of it – including a two-week residency Off-Broadway and performing in 35 states and counting!

She is excited to be back on stage with Tomáseen Foley’s A Celtic Christmas again to share the infectious energy of Irish dancing with audiences across the country this holiday season.

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