Chris Brennan Hagy, Kathy DeAngelo, and Dennis Gormley know how to throw a party. And what better occasion than the 25th anniversary of the youth Irish music project known as Next Generation.
Dozens of Next Gen current members, former members—including some from the very beginning—along with parents and friends gathered Sunday in the Commodore John Barry Arts & Cultural Center Sunday to commemorate the very special anniversary.
The event began with a veritable potluck feast in the center’s Barry Room. Attendees were also treated to a commemorative video, looking back on those 25 years, and featuring many onetime “kids”—harpists, fiddlers, whistlers, flutists, bodhran players and more—who are now full-fledged grownups with kids of their own.
A highlight of the celebration was the cutting of a sheet cake with the Next Generation logo on it, contributed by the Philadelphia-Delaware Valley branch of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann. Officers of the Philadelphia Ceili Group also offered commemorative gifts to Hagy, Gormley and DeAngelo.
Of course, the highlight was a rollicking traditional Irish music session. Many of the previous generations joined in with current Next Gen musicians, happily playing away, flawlessly tripping along from jigs to hornpipes to polkas to reels. All of them, led with their usual enthusiasm—and maybe a bit more—by the proud leaders of Next Generation, who brought all those kids into the fold and introduced them to the tradition in the first place.
We have photos from the anniversary celebration. Check them out.
