Hamilton’s Steel City Rovers joins Stratford Symphony Orchestra for ‘Under the Celtic Skies’

Celtic music meets the symphony in the upcoming concert “Under the Celtic Skies,” performed Jan. 24 when the Steel City Rovers (pictured) are guests of the Stratford Symphony Orchestra.

A very special evening is planned for Jan. 24 when the Stratford Symphony Orchestra (SSO) will perform the annual Celtic concert at Avondale United Church. Since 2005, the SSO has been performing this exploration of Celtic music to the delight of many audiences over the years.

Steel City Rovers are a group out of Hamilton, where they found their name, comprised of Ryan McKenna, Mark Fletcher, Jeff Tripoli, Joel McKenna and Devon Martine. Their music styling is Celtic meets Bluegrass and Americana folk. Brothers Ryan and Joel have been playing their adult lives in Irish pubs and making a living before growing the band to five.

“We also have Mark Fletcher in the band, and he has a really deep knowledge of heritage music. He’s the sort of fellow who pulls manuscripts from hundreds of years ago, 200 years ago, dusts them off and brings these obscure Celtic writings to life. We’ve spent a lot of time in that tradition absorbing the culture and heritage but then also creating from that writing, creating things that we feel fit within that genre,” said Ryan McKenna, singer of the Steel City Rovers.

Performing with an orchestra is something they have had the privilege of doing before with the International Symphony Orchestra. The prospect of performing with SSO is met with such enthusiasm for the heights that the collaboration brings.

“Standing in front of the orchestra as a singer, with one’s own compositions arranged for a full symphony, all of a sudden everything clicks and you say, ‘Oh, this is how music is supposed to sound.’ This is a greater realization of the vision that I had in my heart when I wrote this piece. The beauty of an orchestra is how it can flesh out ideas and seem in a way that, you know, a five-piece band simply can’t, so it’s an absolute thrill to have the music come to life in this way,” said Ryan McKenna.

The performance will include pieces that have been performed with an orchestra in the past, as well as new arrangements to look forward to. Arrangements for SSO were written by Ben Bolt-Martin and Kevin Fox.

“One that is exciting to me as a vocalist is one that we’ve had most recently arranged freshly for symphony and it’s called ‘Today’s Rain’ and it comes from an old Scottish saying, ‘Today’s rain is tomorrow’s whiskey.’ It speaks in terms of what happens as we struggle in life and that hopefully it comes to be something beautiful. It’s a piece that often gives me chills,” said Ryan McKenna.

There are also exclusively instrumental pieces to be performed. Another newly arranged song is called “Gathering at Achallaber.” It was created and arranged for the band by Fletcher and Bolt-Martin for the symphony.

For this concert, it will be all musicians on deck with a full membership of the orchestra on stage with full numbers, big strength sections, full stage. “We’ve had a lot of experience doing this for the last 20 years, so we’ve kind of found these formulas that work best and bring it home for audiences and heighten the experience and we want the band to have a great time with us,” said William Rowson, SSO music director and symphony conductor.

“I’ve been going through all the charts, the orchestrations we’ve had with the band and they’re really fantastic, so I have a good sense now of how it’s going to work just from studying and it’s nothing but promising,” Rowson said. “These two worlds can make just fantastic music and it gives a great opportunity for artistry not just from the band but from the SSO as well. We like to show off, we like to show people what we can do to express ourselves and I hope the audience comes out of this show with really high spirits feeling really glad they came and being very proud of what their community can do.”

This won’t be your average Kitchen Ceilidh. There will be two performances Jan. 24, one at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m., both at Avondale United Church. Tickets are available online at stratfordsymphony.ca