The last nine months have been big ones for fiddlers Mark and Maggie O’Connor. They relocated to Charlotte, he became composer-in-residence at the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra (which will play his Americana Symphony next season) and they launched the O’Connor Band with his son, Forrest, and Kate Lee. The year got even better Sunday night, when the band’s debut “Coming Home” won a Grammy for best bluegrass album.
O’Connor himself had won in 1991 (country instrumental, “The New Nashville Cats”) and 2000, when he shared the classical crossover prize with Yo-Yo Ma and Edgar Meyer for “Appalachian Journey.” This time, the band beat veterans Laurie Lewis and the Right Hands, Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver, Blue Highway and Claire Lynch.
[How Mark and Maggie O’Connor came to Charlotte]
The band, which also includes Joe Smart and Geoff Saunders, debuted on the Rounder label in 2016. It played a December concert in McGlohon Theater, and you’ll have another chance to see it May 19 at Knight Theater. The O’Connor Band will join the symphony and music director Christopher Warren-Green in an altsounds concert titled “Fiddles and Blue Jeans.”
Toppman: 704-358-5232
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