Mountain City Traditional Arts Presents Celtic Guitarist Tony McManus

Mountain City Traditional Arts Presents Celtic Guitarist Tony McManus

Sep 22, 2025 8:00 AM

Frostburg State University's Mountain City Traditional Arts will host renown master Celtic guitarist on Sunday, Oct. 5, at 4 p.m. at 25 E. Main St. in Frostburg. The live entertainment is open to the public through general admission with a suggested donation of $15.

McManus has both extended and transcended the parameters of contemporary Celtic music. Ranked by peers and predecessors alike alongside the guitar world's all-time greats, his fiendishly dexterous, dazzlingly original playing draws on traditions from the entire Celtic diaspora - Scotland, Ireland, Brittany, Galicia, Asturias, Cape Breton, Quebec - along with still further-ranging flavors, such as jazz and east European music.

Long applauded for his uncanny ability to transpose the delicate, complex ornamentation characteristic of traditional bagpipe or fiddle tunes - even the phrasing of a Gaelic song - onto his own six strings, McManus is increasingly being acknowledged as a pioneering figure in bridging the realms of Celtic music and other guitar genres.

Born in 1965 in Paisley, near Glasgow, McManus was introduced to traditional music via the family record collection. Having first tried his hand at the fiddle, whistle and mandolin, he took up the guitar at aged ten. Over the years, McManus has recorded a catalog of dazzling albums, both solo and with friends, delivering a breadth of artistry and performance which conjures up images and themes of the traditional music of the Celts along with more global influences from far and wide.

MCTA is a program of FSU and a founding member of Maryland's Folklife Network. It receives support from the Maryland Traditions Program of the State Arts Council.

For more information, call 301-687-8040.