Seirm

Seirm’s New Format for 2023 - 2024
It's time to have fun singing together in person again after three years of not being able to hear one another sing over Zoom. Seirm's format is changing from weekly rehearsals to in-person song circle sessions one Saturday per month and one online monthly Monday evening session to learn songs. For the song circles, we’ll be using the four Féis songbooks which include 76 songs for people to choose what they'd like to sing. We're not preparing for the Mòd or a concert at the end of the season, so it's okay if you can't make it to every session.

The first online session is Monday, September 25th from 7 pm – 9 pm to sing waulking songs in preparation for our waulking demo at the 2nd Annual Quilcene Fiber Festival October 7th. The first song circle is Saturday, October 21st at 2 pm at the Wedgewood Alehouse & Cafe. To help cover expenses, we ask people to chip in $5 when attending a song circle or pay the regular $40 Seirm dues that cover the entire season of song circles and online classes.

The pub requires a headcount, so please email seirm.director@slighe.org if you’re coming October 21st. The Féis Songbooks will be available for sale at $25 each (all songs have musical notation, translations of the Gaelic lyrics, and a CD with a recording of each song). 

Monthly Song Circles

Oct 21st, Nov 4th*, Dec 9th, Jan 13th, Feb 10th, Mar 9th, Apr 6th, May 11th. 

Wedgewood Alehouse & Cafe

Speakeasy Room

8515 35th Ave NE

Seattle, WA 98115

https://www.wedgwoodalehouse.com/

2 pm - 4pm

$5 per session or $40 for the season

*The November song circle will be held at Slighe nan Gaidheal's Annual General Meeting November 4th

Monthly Monday Sessions 7 pm – 9 pm via Zoom
Sept 25th, Oct 23rd, Nov 20th, Dec 18th, Jan 15th, Feb 26th, Mar 25th, April 22nd, May 20th

Seirm is Slighe nan Gaidheal’s céilidh band of singers and musicians who create traditional and innovative Scottish Gaelic music together. Seirm performs at various community events to promote interest and awareness of the Scottish Gaelic language, music and song tradition.

Originally formed as a 4-part a cappella choir in 1996 to participate in Mòd Vancouver, Seirm transitioned to the current format following the conclusion of Mòd Vancouver in 2007. Seirm participated in the Royal National Mòd in Scotland in October 2017 and plans to return in October 2020.

Seirm at the 2017 Royal National Mòd (The Oban Times)

Seirm welcomes people regardless of their musical experience or knowledge of Gaelic. There are no auditions and no one will be asked to sing or play by themselves to join the group. Some people in the group read music while others learn by ear. The only prerequisites to join are a willingness to learn Gaelic songs or tunes and have fun!

No previous experience with Gaelic is necessary since we work on pronunciation as part of learning the songs and have recordings of each song for practicing at home. We learn about a dozen Gaelic songs each season, some of which we sing a cappella and others that are accompanied by our group of instrumentalists. The band also learns several Scottish dance tune sets to play for céilidh dancing.

Please contact Penny McLeod DeGraff if you would like to join or have any questions.

Upcoming Seirm & Music Events