Fiddler Dana Lyn and guitarist Kyle Sanna first met at a traditional Irish music session in New York City and soon discovered a shared interest in classical, jazz, and experimental music, as well as a deep admiration for Irish music. Both are active participants in Brooklyn’s eclectic music scene as arrangers, composers, players and improvisers. Their collaborative effort, “The Hare Said a Prayer to the Rainbow and Followed the Fox Down the Hole,” reflects both their wide range of influences and the depth of their experience with traditional Irish music, and has been hailed as “ground-breaking” by noted folklorist Mick Moloney.
Lyn and Sanna have brought their music to clubs, festival stages and concert halls throughout the US and Canada. They have taught workshops at the Old Songs Festival, the Catskills Irish Arts Festival, the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival, Wellesley College, the University of Eastern Carolina, and West Virginia’s Augusta Heritage Center. The duo has collaborated with renowned Irish musicians Kevin Burke, Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill, Cillian Vallely and Susan McKeown, as well as with actor Vincent D’Onofrio. They are currently working on a second recording to be released in the fall of 2014.
Dana Lyn has performed in New York City’s Town and Carnegie Halls as well as Saturday Night Live, the National Folk-life Festival, the Milwaukee Irish Music and Celtic Connections, among others. She has collaborated and performed with a wide range of artists including NEA Award Recipient Mick Moloney and the Green Fields of America, Grammy Award-winning vocalist Susan McKeown, indie rock artists The Walkmen and Florence and the Machine, Irish poet Louis de Paor, as well as noted actor-directors Ethan Hawke and Vincent D’Onofrio. She was also featured on ‘The Raw Bar’ and ‘Geanntrai’: two documentaries on traditional Irish music that aired on national television in Ireland. As a composer, Dana has received commissions from the Apple Hill String Quartet, Brooklyn Rider, Cherish the Ladies, the OSSO String Quartet and the New Orchestra of Washington.
Kyle Sanna has collaborated with and performed alongside many of today’s greatest virtuosos (Edgar Meyer, Yo-Yo Ma, Chris Thile, Theodosii Spassov); with some of the greatest living interpreters of Irish music (Kevin Burke, Martin Hayes), and with many veterans of New York’s downtown experimental scene. Kyle Sanna’s arrangements have been performed by Germany’s SWR Orchestra, guitar icon Kaki King, Korean pop-superstar Rain, cellist Jan Vogler (for Sony Classical), Irish fiddler Martin Hayes (NPR’s Performance Today), and Yo-Yo Ma (2010 Grammy-winning release for Sony Classical, performance on The Colbert Report). As a composer, Kyle Sanna has received commissions from Beta Collide, Brooklyn Rider, The Knights, and flutist Alex Sopp. His work has been performed at the Oregon Bach Festival, Art Basel Miami Beach, and the International Symposium on Electronic Art.
