They’re back: Cherish the Ladies to perform ‘A Celtic Christmas’ Dec. 5 at CSB

There’s a reason Cherish the Ladies have filled two venues at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University.

Featuring strong instrumental talent, stunning arrangements, mesmerizing vocals and even step dancing, the Ladies put on an immensely entertaining show.

The all-female Irish-American super power will bring a Celtic Christmas celebration to the stage at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 5, to the College of Saint Benedict’s Escher Auditorium in the Benedicta Arts Center. It is part of the Fine Arts Series at CSB and Saint John’s University.

In their beloved Celtic Christmas program, the Ladies stamp their signature mark on classic carols such as “O Come All Ye Faithful” and “Silent Night.”

The show is filled with holiday magic you won’t want to miss, and not many did when Cherish the Ladies previously performed two shows in 2007 at CSB and one in 2015 at SJU.

Lead by flutist Joanie Madden, the All-Ireland flute and whistle champion and one of The Irish Voice newspaper’s top 25 most influential Irish Americans, the group celebrates the “rise of women in what had been a male-dominated Irish music scene,” according to the band’s website.

Since their founding in 1985 in New York City, the Ladies have become one of the top Celtic groups in the world. They even have a street named after them in the Bronx, New York.

The New York Times praises the Ladies’ music as “passionate, tender, and rambunctious.” The Washington Post agrees, saying they display an “astonishing array of virtuosity.”

The group has won an Emmy for a live concert, “An Irish Homecoming,” which was simultaneously videotaped for a Public Television special that was aired across America. Cherish the Ladies also has earned a Grammy nomination, as well as titles of BBC’s Best Musical Group of the Year, the Irish Voice’s Entertainment Group of the Year, the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall’s International Group of the Year and the Irish Music Awards’ Top North American Celtic Group.

The group has played at the White House and the Olympics, and have collaborated with a wide-range of musicians, including Don Henley, Pete Seeger, Vince Gill, Arlo Guthrie and the Boston Pops.

Cherish the Ladies have released 17 albums, with its most recent album being “Heart of the Home,” released in 2018. The title track features Ireland’s leading entertainer, Nathan Carter.

“Cherish the Ladies has been a leading group in the Irish traditional world,” the Boston Globe reviewed. “It is simply impossible to imagine an audience that wouldn’t enjoy what they do.”

Tickets for Cherish the Ladies: A Celtic Christmas are $36 for adults, $33 for seniors, $29 for faculty and staff, $15 for youth and $10 for CSB/SJU students.

For tickets, call the Benedicta Arts Center Box Office at 320-363-5777 or order online.

Cherish the Ladies will partner with the Benedictine Institute to conduct an audio divina at 3 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 5, at the Emmaus Chapel, SJU.

Cherish the Ladies: A Celtic Christmas at the College of Saint Benedict is sponsored by St. Cloud Orthopedics, Centrasota Oral Surgeons and the Central Minnesota Credit Union.

The activity is made possible in part by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.