Name: Martin Hayes and the Common Ground Ensemble
Start: 2026-03-08T20:00:00+00:00
Location: Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin, Ireland D02 N527

Martin Hayes and the Common Ground Ensemble

Martin Hayes
Common Ground Ensemble
Sam Amidon
Síle Denvir
Stephanie Keane
Martin Hayes takes us on a journey into the soul of traditional music in this specially developed immersive concert featuring his own Common Ground Ensemble, American folk artist Sam Amidon, sublime sean-nos singer Síle Denvir and dancer Stephanie Keane. This is newly curated concert debuts at NCH before playing Carnegie Hall, New York on March 17th and touring the U.S.
Praised by the Irish Times as a musician with an “insatiable appetite for adventure”, Martin Hayes is regarded as one of the most significant talents to emerge in the world of Irish traditional music. He is the founder of the musical supergroup The Gloaming, The Common Ground Ensemble, and the Martin Hayes Quartet. Martin has performed in venues such as the Barbican, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Philharmonie Cologne, Philharmonie de Paris, Muziekgebouw Amsterdam, and Usher Hall, Edinburgh. He has created collaborations in the classical, folk and contemporary music worlds with musicians such as Bill Frisell, Ricky Skaggs, Jordi Savall, Brooklyn Rider and the Irish Chamber Orchestra, and the RTE Concert Orchestra.
He has performed on stage with musicians such as Sting and Paul Simon and has recorded with Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Project.
Sam Amidon released his new album Salt River in January 2025, his first on River Lea Records. The Vermont native, who is now based in London, has collaborated with saxophonist and producer Sam Gendel to reinterpret and regenerate ten songs that he has gathered together as part of a decades-long quest to recontextualise what it means to sing folk songs or make folk music.
Síle Denvir is a sean-nós singer and harpist who is deeply influenced by her upbringing in the west of Ireland, Connemara Gaeltacht. A native Irish speaker, her singing is very much rooted in the ancient style of sean-nós or old-style Gaelic singing, and she can make the local global through her ethereal performance style. As well as being a solo artist, Síle has collaborated with some of the finest musicians in Irish music. She is a founding member of the group Líadan, she has toured with The Chieftains, and recent performances include collaborations with Barry Kerr, Liam Ó Maonlaí, Martin Hayes and Úna Monaghan.
Stephanie Keane hails from Limerick, where she began her Irish Dancing journey at the age of 4, competing competitively in Irish Step Dancing at World Championship level. Stephanie relocated to East Clare where she fell in love with the sean-nós style of dancing. Through this immersion in sean-nós, she has developed a unique style of percussive dance.