About

Musique Royale announces an upcoming virtual Cookie Concert featuring Papilio, taking listeners on a creative journey exploring the roots music of many cultures. Papilio is a neo-traditional acoustic trio based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. With fiddle, flutes, vocals and guitars, Papilio renders a mix of celtic and international instrumentals, original compositions, and folk songs with their own distinctive creative twist. Their musical adventures through Ireland, Scotland, Brittany (France), Scandinavia, Galicia and Asturias (Spain), Cape Breton, Quebec, the Balkans, and further afield show the inspiration and creativity that ensue when cultures connect. Join Musique Royale virtually via its Facebook and YouTube channels for Papilio’s Cookie Concert on Saturday November 7th at 2 pm at the Lunenburg School of the Arts!

Papilio has performed at the Stan Rogers Folk Festival, the Celtic Colours International Festival, the East Coast Music Awards, the Halifax Multicultural Festival, Nova Scotia Music Week, and in concert venues and dance halls across the Maritimes. Their second album, Sociable Butterflies, is now available. ​Papilio’s debut album, First Flight, engineered by Glenn Coolen and John D.S. Adams, was nominated for an East Coast Music Award and a Nova Scotia Music Award in 2014.

About the artists

Anthony Rissesco (fiddle) is a versatile violin player and teacher who tours regularly with singer-songwriter Lennie Gallant and with roots-rock band Pogey. He is also a member of the Halifax band The Gig Dogs. As a music student at Dalhousie University, Anthony studied classical violin under Phillippe Djokic. He has won fiddle competitions throughout Canada, including the Maritime Fiddle Championship. In 1990, he came third in the Canadian Open in Shelburne Ontario, and he was chosen to represent Nova Scotia at the Grand Masters Competition in Ottawa for six consecutive years. Anthony has played with Symphony Nova Scotia, Bruce Guthro, Cyril MacPhee, Anne Murray, Merrimac, and Peggy Seeger.

Jennifer Publicover (flute) leads a multi-faceted life performing on both the modern orchestral flute and wooden Irish flute. She earned her Master’s degree in flute performance at the University of Toronto and her B.Mus at Mount Allison. As a collaborator in traditional music forms, she also works with harpist Alys Howe and many other artists. In her alter ego as a classical flutist, she has freelanced for Symphony Nova Scotia, the Stadacona Band (including as a featured soloist with Scott Macmillan), and Rejouissance. She is also a published scholar on the use of music as an environmental education tool, based on interviews with prominent Canadian songwriters. She teaches flute and is the owner and director of the Halifax Institute of Traditional and Early Music.

Skip Holmes (guitar) has been playing professionally for over 40 years, and plays guitar, banjo, mandolin and fiddle. He was a member of the “Ladies Choice Bluegrass Band” with his longtime musical partner Gordon Stobbe, and collaborated with Gordon on a number of projects, including the ATV musical variety series “Up Home Tonight”, “Those Fabulous Cliches”, and the “Gordon Stobbe Trio”. He has also toured Canada, the U.S. and Europe with fiddler Richard Wood, and is featured on all his recordings. He has worked as well with such noted fiddlers as Graham and Eleanor Townsend, Byron Berline, Calvin Vollrath, Shane Cook, Troy and Kendra MacGillivray, Ray Legere, Ivan Hicks, Peter Dawson, Jocelyn Bourque, Stacy Read, J.P. Cormier, Kelli Trottier and the “Bb Sisters”. He has transcribed the music of fiddlers Joe Cormier, Byron Berline and Stuart Duncan for Mel Bay Publications, as well as a book of original fiddle tunes by Richard Wood. He has also written a book called “The Guitar Players Guide to Accompanying the Fiddle”. Skip has taught guitar, banjo, fiddle and mandolin at the Long and McQuade Music Lesson Centre (formerly the Canadian Conservatory of Music) in Bedford, NS since 1984, and is a frequent guest instructor at fiddle camps and workshops across the country.

For more please visit: https://www.papiliomusic.ca/home.html

Cookie Concerts are child-friendly concerts normally held the first Saturday of the month at 2 pm (from Oct-June) at the Lunenburg School of the Arts. During COVID-19 Musique Royale prerecords and offers Cookie Concerts online for free via it's YouTube and Facebook channels.