NEDERLAND -- Beth Gadbaw found herself drawn to Irish music because of her heritage. Her mother’s family emigrated to the United States during Ireland’s Great Famine (1845-1852), settling in upstate New York. From a young age, Gadbaw found herself inspired by that history and culture, particularly once she discovered their musical traditions. From a young age, she’s been singing Irish folk songs, writing limericks, learning the tradition of Irish pub songs, and harmonizing with her triplet sisters. Once she started singing, she never stopped. While she does explore various musical styles, most of her writing and musical performances have roots in Irish music.
She fully immersed herself in her history when she traveled to Ireland for the first time in 1996, attending the Joe Mooney and Willie Clancy summer schools. She spent subsequent summers in Milltown Malbay, came back to her birth country to earn her Master’s in Music Education (with an emphasis in Ethnomusicology) at the University of Colorado, and returned once again to Ireland as a continuing education student at Galway’s National University of Ireland. She also spent a year in Devon, England, falling in love with English folksong during that time.
Gadbaw especially loves collaborating with others musically, citing the intimacy that develops between artists as a primary reason. Margot Krimmel is one of her longest collaborators, as they’ve been performing for almost three decades. After returning from Ireland in 1998, realizing she missed the sound of her roommate’s Celtic harp, she decided she wanted to learn it herself. David Kolacny, a Denver harpist who co-owns the music store founded by his grandfather, Kolacny Music, recommended Krimmel to Gadbaw. Krimmel’s daughter soon took voice lessons with Gadbaw, and the two teachers quickly embraced their shared passion for traditional music and played it together.
Krimmel likes to say she started her music career at three years old when she started singing whatever came into her head. Playing music, listening to it and dancing along, singing in choirs, playing guitar, exploring various styles, and being a musician in general have always been important parts of her life. Early in her career, she played acoustic bass in a swing band, sang and provided guitar for a country-western band, and dabbled in piano and flute. However, once she started playing the harp, she completely fell in love and embraced it as her primary instrument.
Krimmel has taught private harp lessons at Colorado Academy, Naropa University, Swallow Hill Music School, and Colorado Mountain School, and in 1992, she began The Boulder Harp Studio, teaching youth folk and pedal harp. Krimmel remembers playing with Gadbaw for the first time publicly in one of the latter’s performances during her master’s program at CU, where the former provided harp for select songs. Krimmel cites Gadbaw as her introduction to Irish music.
Both musicians have a sprawling career individually. Gadbaw has released a solo album, The Green Fields and The Mountains High, and is featured in the album Live in Lyons with her group Take Down The Door. Meanwhile, Krimmel has released two solo albums, Songlines and Ever The New Time Comes. Gadbaw has made guest appearances on stage with the Chieftains, opened for The Battlefield Band, Lunasa, and The Seamus Egan Project, and toured with fiddler Sandra Wong and bouzouki player Roger Landes. Krimmel has performed on projects by Janet Feder, Jim Ratts and the Runaway Express, Robert Gass, and the Cherry Creek Chorale as a freelance recording artist. Krimmel has also received multiple awards as a solo performer, including first place for jazz at the Pop and Jazzfest in Tuscon, first place for traditional music at the Scottish Highland Festival in Estes Park, third place for Celtic harp composition at the Rencontres Harpe Celtique in Dinan, France, and two pieces placed in the 2007 International New Century Harp Music competition.
As a duo, Gadbaw & Krimmel (as they go by) have released three albums: White Birds, Icy December, and Live at the Black Rose Acoustic Society. Their original carol “The Donkey and the Doves” has been repeatedly chosen by listeners of Colorado Public Radio as one of their top 50 favorite holiday carols in a given year. Boulder County awarded the duo an artistic residency at Caribou Ranch in 2014, and they were commissioned to write new pieces for the Seattle choir Cora Voce and set select pieces of Welsh Poet Laureate Gwyneth Lewis to music in 2016. Gadbaw hopes that people who see her perform or listen to her music in any capacity feel grateful for experiencing the joy of the shows and the music, and Krimmel hopes to encourage listeners and audience members to create whatever music they’re most inspired to create. Both are still just as excited to perform now as they were when they began and Krimmel, in particular, feels particularly connected to the energy they create as a duo, both musically and personally.
You can see (Beth) Gadbaw and (Margot) Krimmel performing live at Busey Brews, located at 70 E. 1st Street in Nederland, on Sunday, December 8, 2024, starting at 2 p.m. For more information about both musicians and to purchase any or all of the albums listed above (they are not on streaming platforms), head to their respective websites at bethgadbaw.com and boulderharp.com.
