Four Shillings Short

About this event

ABOUT FOUR SHILLINGS SHORT https://www.4shillingsshort.com

After 31 years of touring in the US & Ireland, Four Shillings Short are on their Farewell Tour which will last through the Winter 2028. The duo will travel one final time to many of their favorite towns and venues in the United States before retiring to live in Ireland in 2029.

The husband/wife duo of Aodh Og O’Tuama from Cork, Ireland and Christy Martin from California, met in Palo Alto, California back in 1995 at St. Michael’s Alley, which at that time was one of the top folk & acoustic music venues in the San Francisco Bay Area. They fell in love, got married in 1996, and began touring nationally in 1997. On their first tour of the US, they performed 60 concerts in 90 days in 30 States and drove 30,000 miles.

Their music is a mix of Traditional and Original music from the Celtic lands, Medieval & Renaissance Europe, India and the Americas which they perform on a fantastic array of instruments (over 30) including Hammered & Mountain Dulcimer, Mandolin, Mandola, Bouzouki, Recorders, Tinwhistles, Medieval and Renaissance Woodwinds, North Indian Sitar, Charango, Bowed Psaltery, Banjo, Native American Flutes, Bodhran, Guitar, Ukulele, Doumbek & Darbuka, Spoons, vocals and even a Krumhorn.

Four Shillings Short performs 80 concerts a year, have released 13 recordings and live as full time Troubadours, performing at music festivals, theatres & performing arts centers, folk societies, libraries, house concerts, retirement communities, schools & churches. They also lead Archaeology, Music and Folklore tours in Ireland every year.

Aodh Og O’Tuama grew up in a family of poets, musicians and writers. He received his degree in Music from University College Cork, Ireland and received a Fellowship from Stanford University in California in Medieval and Renaissance performance. He plays Tinwhistles, Medieval & Renaissance woodwinds, Recorders, Doumbek (from Morocco), Darbuka (from Egypt), Medieval Bowed Psaltery, Native American Flute, Wooden Spoons and sings both in English, Gaelic & French.

Christy Martin grew up in a family of musicians and dancers. From the age of 15, began her training on the North Indian Sitar, studying with Tony Karasek (a student of master Sitarist Ravi Shankar) and Rahul Sariputra (a student of Allaudin Khan). In her 20’s she took up the Hammered Dulcimer and studied with Maggie Sansone, Dan Duggan, Cliff Moses, Robin Petrie, Tony Elman and Glen Morgan. She also plays Mandolin, Mandola, Bouzouki, Banjo, Guitar, Bodhran (Irish frame drum), Andean Charango, Medieval Psaltery, Ukulele and sings in English, Irish and Sanskrit.

From Teatro Paraguas