Patrick Ball is considered one of the premier Celtic harpers and storytellers in the world today. He has recorded nine instrumental and five spoken word albums which have sold well over one-half million copies collectively and earned national awards in both the music and spoken word categories. We’re thrilled to have him return to our stage while he visits from Ireland - get tickets early, this event will sell out!
Tickets are $35 GA, $28 for OCA members. OCA is wheelchair accessible.
Online ticket sales end at 4pm on March 11th. Tickets will be available at the door.
Patrick Ball was born and raised in California and gave little thought to such things as where his ancestors came from. He went to school and supposed, when he thought about it at all, that he would one day be a lawyer like his father. But he studied music from time to time and over the years developed a nodding acquaintance with the piano and the guitar. At university he continued his flirtatious relationship with music by playing the tin whistle, principally to annoy his roommate. But at this time he found that he was irresistibly drawn to words, to the music of words, to writers who made words sing, to writers from Ireland. When he began to study history to fulfill his academic requirements, he was not surprised to find that it was the lyrical, turbulent history of Ireland that engaged him. So much so, in fact, that when his father died, all his thoughts of law school died with him. He enrolled in graduate school and soon made his way to Ireland. There he fell in love with the eloquence and fire of the Irish oral tradition. There he fell in love with the Celtic harp. And there a few pieces of his life fell into place. For he came to know that marvelous unity of Irish words, music and history that would become his passion and, eventually, his livelihood. Patrick now lives in County Clare, Ireland with his wife and dog. He continues to tour extensively throughout the United States, Ireland, the United Kingdom and Canada.
“An American master of the Irish instrument, a peripatetic modern day bard, combining tale-telling, history and music into a seamless compound that reaches all ages and types of listeners.”
San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco, CA
“Patrick Ball conjured some Druid magic...weaving words and music into a spellbinding program.”
The Blade, Toledo, OH
“His concert consisted of ethereally gorgeous instrumental music and colorful stories. The music, like that of many Windham Hill artists, painted a feeling with delicate wisps of sound. But there is something special about the sound of the harp and the sight of someone playing it. His renditions of musical antiquities were almost a spiritual experience.”
The Courier Journal, Louisville, KY
“Ball weaves a pleasant skein of shanachie tales with a fair bit of wit, but it’s just so much string for his true jewels, the short harp solos. These extremely delicate and gracefully measured melodies shone like constellations over a moonless heath.”
The Boston Globe