Fresh from a highly successful 34-date European tour, acclaimed composer and master guitarist Dave Flynn returns to Aotearoa in 2026 with a brand new show “Flynn’s Celtic Strings”. He is joined by Wellington-based fiddle player/vocalist Em Griffiths and Kawerau mandolin player/vocalist Lee Corbett Barton for a wonderful concert of Celtic songs, tunes and tales.
Hailed for working “effortlessly across musical boundaries” (Radio NZ) and giving “Irish music a classical twist” (NZ Listener), Dave Flynn directs performances that are “played with intoxicating verve” (Elizabeth Kerr, Five Lines).
Dave’s prior NZ tours have won widespread acclaim, including sold-out shows with the NZ String Quartet at the 2025 Wanaka Festival of Colour and collaborating with Dunedin legend Robert Scott (The Bats, The Clean) at Dunedin Folk Club.
Flynn is a musician of many hats: orchestra conductor, guitar virtuoso and award-winning composer who is as renowned for his collaborations with Irish fiddle star Martin Hayes as he is for his own ensemble the Irish Memory Orchestra.
With Flynn’s Celtic Strings he has formed his first ever New Zealand-based group and they will make their debut Rotorua performance in Shambles Theatre as part of a series of Creative Communities-funded events around the North Island. Indeed, though he has toured New Zealand several times, this event marks Dave Flynn’s first Rotorua concert of any kind!
Expect a Celtic celebration of the 20th anniversary of Flynn’s groundbreaking debut album Draíocht– a magical mix of songs and instrumentals. Be immersed in the Kiwi-Celtic suite *Sketches of Aotearoa*, alongside rich vocal harmonies, stirring reels and jigs, and the occasional tin whistle!
An unmissable event for lovers of Celtic song-craft and inventive instrumental interplay.
