"Our area was treated to splendid performances of Celtic music on March 14 and 15, when the Masterworks Chorus was joined by two accomplished Celtic bands - Fynesound on Friday and IONA on Saturday, providing an enriching and enjoyable lead-in to the St. Patrick’s Day weekend. I attended Saturday's event.  IONA played numbers from the usual heritages--Ireland, Scotland, and Wales--as well as Brittany, and Canada, five before and six after the Chorus's 10 songs.  They performed numbers ranging from the frivolous to heart-rending laments.  Their commentary was laced with deep knowledge of the roots of their music and a sharp sense of humor--explaining a song in an obsure Scottish lowland border dialect with:  "We've been told it has a lot of dirty words, but we don't understand them, and since we are performing in a church, if you do, please don't tell anyone."  IONA created a shared experience by encouraging and coaching audience participation in nearly half of their numbers. The 36 member Masterworks Chorus performed five songs with its Women's Ensemble and five as full chorus.  Although much of the repertoire was familiar, including "Will Ye Go Lassie Go?" and "Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye", the arrangements were challenging, sophisticated, and very well performed.  Other songs featured more contemporary material and scoring, but all with Celtic themes.  Particularly warm and meaningful was the staging of the final number.  The Chorus encircled the audience in the outer aisles to sing "An Irish Blessing", making tangible the concert theme, "A Celtic Circle". Artistic Director Dr. Betty Karol Wilson developed a dynamic and enriching cultural experience by blending the folk and traditional-based talents of Fynesound and IONA with the Chorus’s more formal classical style.  The audience benefitted from an extensively informative program booklet which included two pages of notes by Dr. Wilson on Celtic music and the text of three poems which were inspirations for some of the songs. We are fortunate to have the cultural and artistic treasure that is Masterworks Chorus in our area."  Dennis Atwood Maurertown, VA