Madison-Area Celtic Music Events

Always check the celticmadison.org Events Calendar first!

• Dance Events are posted on our Dance page.
   
• Regular Music Sessions in Madison
  • Every Wednesday (effective 4/2/2025): Come on out to play or listen to some great Irish music at the fantastic Awildan Distilling Tasting Room, open for your drinking pleasure at 5353 Maly Rd STE D, Sun Prairie WI 53590. Kara Rogers, who plays with Lilies of the Midwest leads this open session. If you want to join in playing, it's best that you have a good understanding of Irish music.
  • New! First and third Sundays: Muso Slow Irish Session 5-7 pm, at Muso, 2040 Winnebago St., Madison. Open to all but focused for beginning and intermediate players and those who want to learn to play Irish traditional music in a group setting.
  • New! First Thursdays (effective 2/5/2026): 6-9 pm at the Elks Lodge, 711 Jenifer St. Madison. This is an advanced session for experienced players only, please.
  • The Wednesdays tradition: The decades-long tradition of Wednesday sessions in downtown Madison stumbled in 2019, and 2020 wiped it out. Some dream of restoring those glory days....
  • Second and Fourth Sundays of the month, 1 pm to 3 pm (or 4 or 5 pm if people don't want to quit), either (in summer weather) at McFarland House Cafe in McFarland, as an outdoor session, with seating at picnic tables, in front of the Cafe under a big gorgeous shade tree, unless it's raining, or (in winter weather) at Unity Church, 601 Tompkins Drive, Madison, 53716, park and enter thru the rear lot off Groveland.
  • Occasional(?) Wednesdays: about 15 miles southeast, out in Stoughton, the Viking Brewpub on Main Street hosts a session, 7pm.
  • Here are some excellent tips on how traditional Irish music sessions work, from a Belfast-based Web site.

Other Calendars

• The Shamrock Club also maintains an Irish music and dance calendar for the Milwaukee area and for all of Wisconsin.
• For sessions outside of Madison, see the regional links below.

Recommended Links

Local Madison Links

• Madison's Celtic musicians
• Charlene Adzima
• Birch
• Capitol Ceili Band
• Turner Collins
• The Kissers
• Killarney Blarney
• Lilies of the Midwest
• Madison Pipes and Drums
• Alan Ng
• Public House Ceili Band (no longer active, but CD still available)
• Rising Gael
• Rolliana Scheckler (no longer active)
• Slipjig
• The Snug (no longer active)
• The Tooles
• West Wind (no longer active)
• Other Madison-area Celtic music links
• UW-Madison Continuing Studies often offers courses in Irish music held downtown.
• Two of Madison's Irish musicians have posted extensive databases of their repertoire, which should help newcomer musicians fit right in to the scene:
  • Dan Cobb's abc collection: Cobb's Music of Ireland
  • A number of local Irish musicians maintain and share their personal repertoires using irishtune.info (see below under Global Links).
• The Madison Folk Harp Society
• The Madison Folk Music Society, fondly known as "Mad Folk"
• The Wild Hog in the Woods: "Coffeehouse Style Music in the Folk Tradition"

Global Resources

• Ceolas: The original 1990s website that was the traditional Irish music home page for the world, offering material for musicians, fans, and tourists.
• irishtune.info - Irish Traditional Music Tune Index, an index of recorded and printed tunes.
• Tips for Learning Irish Traditional Music

Madison-area Celtic Dance Links

Madison-area Celtic Culture Links

The Celtic Music Association
of Madison, Wisconsin

The farewell email broadcast of the Celtic Music Association sent on 10 April 2024:

For the past several years, the Celtic Music Association has stopped promoting large popular touring groups in large venues and instead focused on individuals and smaller groups performing traditional music, those unlikely to find their way to Madison without our support. House concerts at the home of Will and Robin were enjoyed by a number of performers and the audiences who came to see them in this unique venue before the pandemic closed down this option. A couple of post-pandemic concerts at the Lakeside Coffee House were made possible with the support of the Celtic Cultural Center which has recently disbanded. As a result, now seems to be a good time for the Celtic Music Association to do the same.

Although a greater number of touring groups have moved farther away from the traditional roots of generations that came before, there a number of excellent new venues that present some of the more traditional small groups that continue to perform in Madison. Check out the schedules for The Bur Oak, The North Street Cabaret, or Garver Feed Mill among the smaller clubs or larger venues such as the Overture Center, the Barrymore, the Memorial Union Theater, and Union Terrace. There are also summer festivals, one close to home and a couple others in Milwaukee and the Twin Cities: Irish Fest Madison, Milwaukee Irish Fest, and events from the Center for Irish Music in Saint Paul and the Minnesota Irish Fest.

This means that we will no longer be sending out emails to alert folks to upcoming events but Alan Ng will be maintaining his valuable celticmadison.org website where you can find listings for events, local bands, and dances.

Thanks to all who have supported and enjoyed the many events we have promoted and presented for the past several decades, with a special shout out to all those who have worked with Celtic Music Association through the years to leave a legacy of memorable performances. It has been a rich and rewarding history.

Thank you,

                Bob Newton and Craig Heilman

Archive of Celtic Music Association print newsletters

Past Web-ized newsletters: (older archived issues may not meet current Web Content Accessibility Guidelines)

• Spring 2005 (you'll need the free Acrobat Reader)
• Spring 2004 (Acrobat PDF)
• Spring 2003 (Acrobat PDF)
• Spring 2002 (Acrobat PDF)
• Fall 2001
• Spring 2001
• Fall 2000
• Spring 2000
• Fall 1999
• Spring 1999
• Fall 1998: CMA and the Madison Folk Music Society presented Solas.
• Spring 1998
• Fall 1997
• Summer 1997
• Spring 1997

About CMA

The Celtic Music Association was a group of unpaid volunteers which primarily organized concerts by traditional musicians from Ireland, Scotland, Brittany, and Wales. For over 30 years, CMA brought several acts per year to Madison, ranging from lesser-known gems like Máire O'Keeffe to big names such as The Tannahill Weavers and Altan. We also actively supported Madison's local Celtic dance and music culture.