A Winter Solstice Concert with SeaMuse

Come celebrate the Winter Solstice at the Lopez Center for Community and the Arts, with Stanley and Kip Greenthal, Kim Goldov, John Platter and Pablo Paz, playing Celtic and Balkan tunes, seasonal and original songs and poetry. Last year, the quintet played together for the first time. This year, the group has reclaimed the name SeaMuse, which was given by former bandmate Christos Govetas, who has since moved back to Greece, his native home. Christos has given his blessing for rekindling the name SeaMuse for our new group.

The band will perform a variety of new material for the concert, including a song written by Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits, an 18th century English folk ballad, and a wassail song from Cornwall. A set of marches from Brittany, a lullaby from Scottish piper Gordon Duncan, and a traditional Cretan Syrtos dance, add to the mix.

Stanley is an internationally acclaimed songwriter and instrumentalist, who stretches musical borders from Scotland, Ireland and Brittany to Greece and the Balkans. He sings and plays guitar, bouzouki, laouto and lavta (Greek and Turkish lutes).With five recordings to his credit, Sing Out! magazine described his music as "a fascinating voyage to the highlands of Scotland, the Breton lands and the islands of the Mediterranean." Kip sings harmony vocals, plays a variety of percussion instruments, and the ancient bowed psaltry. She also adds poetry set to musical accompaniment.

Kim Goldov was a member of the original SeaMuse with Kip, Stanley, and Christos Govetas since 2012. He plays violin, glockenspiel, and 5-string electric mandolin. He also played bass and piano on their 2019 recording, "Solstice Fire."

John Platter is a master percussionist & strings & winds wizard. A multi-instrumentalist from the Skagit Valley, he loves decorating tunes with rhythm and color. He's grateful to play in the Winter Solstice concert with cello, drums, cymbals, recorders, whistles and microtonal electric guitar.

Multi-talented instrumentalist Pablo Paz, who plays U bass ukulele, is an Argentinian musician and sound engineer who performs a variety of instruments and genres. He also gives private music lessons on Lopez and helps many local projects with music production.

We hope you will join us as we celebrate the longest night of the year together.

Kip & Stanley are donating their portion of the proceeds of the concert to the LCCA.