Patrick Ball - Celtic Harp & Story

Patrick Ball is one of the premier Celtic harp players in the world and a captivating spoken word artist. He has recorded nine instrumental and five spoken word albums which have sold well over one-half million copies internationally and won national awards in both the music and spoken word categories.

In “Celtic Harp and Story” Patrick rekindles the fire and wonder of an evening of Irish storytelling. In telling the marvelous old tales of wit and enchantment, and in playing the ancient, brass-strung harp of Ireland, he not only carries on two of the richest traditions of Celtic culture, but blends them in concert to create “a richly theatrical and hauntingly beautiful performance.”

Irish Storytelling & Music

Whether in the stronghold of a Galway chieftain in the years before history began or yesterday in the snug corner of a pub in Dublin, the Irish have always delighted in storytelling. Their passion for eloquence and wordplay, their deep devotion to their mythical past, their ability to find joy and humor in a dark world, and their belief that the supernatural world could appear between one breath and the next made their stories and the telling of them unrivaled in the world of the oral tradition.

And always, amidst the storytelling, there was music. Jigs, reels and haunting airs graced the spaces between the tales. And first among Irish instruments, and the most honored, was the legendary Clairseach, the brass-strung Celtic harp. With its crystalline, bell-like voice and lavish resonance, it would soothe its listeners and lead them deeper into the realms of the imagination.

“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

“Patrick Ball conjured some Druid magic ... weaving words and music into a spellbinding program.”

- The Blade, Toledo, OH

OCA is thrilled to welcome back Patrick Ball - Don't miss your chance to see this show! Tickets are $35 GA advance, $28 for OCA members. $5 more at the door (if available). This event is likely to sell out.

Doors open at 6:30 PM, beer/wine/refreshments available. OCA is wheelchair accessible. Art gallery open during intermission.

Patrick’s Bio

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 returned to California, was awarded a Master’s Degree in History by Dominican College, and soon discovered that jobs in the field of Irish scholarship were not to be had for love nor money. After laboring in various lines of work he set off hitchhiking around the country and finally fetched up at Penland School of Crafts in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, where he lived for two years and worked as a groundsman. There he encountered a branch of that living oral tradition that had captivated him in Ireland. And there for him, among the Appalachian storytellers, his love of the spoken word was rekindled. He returned to Ireland for a time, then made his way back to California, determined to put his scholarship, his love of words and his neglected musicianship to some use, to carve out for himself an occupation from the things that he loved. He sought out a maker of the rare wire-strung Celtic harp and taught himself to play. He then gathered the stories he had heard and the history he had learned and blended them with the music that had so often been their companion.

Patrick now lives in The Burren in County Clare, Ireland with his wife and 2 dogs.