NEWS REPORT

Five Irish musicians will arrive in Danville next week for several days of Irish music as part of of the Danville Sister Cities Music Exchange.

on Nov. 8 and perform at many sites around the city through Nov. 12 as part of the current Danville Sister Cities Music Exchange.

Rowan Leslie, Sean Doone and Michael McCluskey will arrive on Nov. 8 and will perform through Nov. 12 at several locations throughout the city.

The visitors will be welcomed to the city during “A Grand Evening of Irish Pub Music” at Morley’s Backyard, from 7-9 p.m. on Nov. 9. During the evening, which is open to the public, Travis Kern, Conrad Shiba, and Shane White, three local musicians who have just returned from a week performing in Ireland, will join the Irish visitors.

On Nov. 10, the group will perform for Danville and Boyle County students at Gravely Hall on the Danville High School campus and preschoolers at the Danville-Boyle County Public Library, at noon for the Rotary Club, and in the evening for The Still. On Nov. 10, the visiting musicians will perform at Dry Stack Coffee Bar at 12:30 p.m., in the Mapletree Place cul-de-sac at 4 p.m., and during a pick-up session at Gypsy Run after 8:30 p.m. On Sunday, Nov. 12, their final day in Danville, the group will perform as part of the 11 a.m. service at the Presbyterian Church of Danville.

Rowan is an Irish fiddle player, composer and tutor from rural County Antrim who now lives in Glasgow, Scotland. Doone is a Belfast native who plays guitar and banjo. McCluskey plays guitar and sings vocals.

Since Sister Cities International twinned the two cities in 2007, more than 500 Danvillians have visited Carrickfergus through exchanges of artists, government officials, musicians and librarians; group tours of Ireland; and sports teams. The fourth tour of Ireland is scheduled for April 16-25.

As part of the exchange, three musicians from Danville, Travis Kern, Shane White and Conrad Shiba, have been performing in pubs throughout Carrickfergus.

While in Ireland, Kern, White and Shiba stayed in the historic Londonderry Arms Hotel, which once was owned by Sir Winston Churchill. While in Danville the Irish musicians will stay in Residence on Main above Dry Stack.