2 March, 2020
Hopkinton Center for the Arts (HCA) presents Stanley & Grimm
in a Celtic concert Saturday, March 14, perfect for the start of St. Patrick’s Day week.
The duo take on old and new interpretations of jigs, reels, and songs played with lively fiddle, guitar,
and voice and together capture the essence and energy of great traditional music. Cash bar
featuring Guinness and a selection of wine and beer. Music starts at 7:30 p.m. Part of the HCA's
new Singer-Songwriter Series. The HCA is located at 98 Hayden Rowe St. Hopkinton MA 01748.
Tickets are $25 general admission and $20 for students/seniors and are available at
www.hopartscenter.org.
Fiddler Nikki Engstrom and guitarist and singer Sean Brennan have been playing throughout
New England as the duo Stanley & Grimm at concerts, house parties, pubs, and festivals.
Having met and played together at local sessions on Cape Cod, Nikki and Sean made their
debut appearance as Stanley & Grimm at the 2005 Cape Cod Celtic Festival where they
opened for the internationally known Cape Breton group Beolach. In the following years they
have recorded three CDs of traditional material and original compositions and arrangements,
opened shows for Martin Hayes & Dennis Cahill, Liz Carroll, and John Doyle.
Nikki Engstrom is an accomplished, award-winning fiddler and teaches many workshops at
festivals throughout the year while maintaining more than 30 full-time private students on Cape
Cod. She has performed, competed, and taught throughout New England and Canada. In
addition to her inspired and intense fiddle playing, Nikki has composed many original tunes,
including “Little Hawk” and “The Huntress.”
Sean Brennan has been playing in sessions and entertaining in pubs for many years in Boston
and on Cape Cod, performing as guest accompanist for well-known artists such as Eamon
Coyne, Patsy Whelan, and the late Jerry Holland, as well as regular performances with Dublin
balladeer Dave Hickey. In addition to the diverse ballads and songs Sean has collected in his
extensive repertoire, he has also written many of his own songs, including fan favorites “Galway
Senorita” and “Last Night’s Fun.”
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The Hopkinton Center for the Arts offers arts to all people. Classes, productions, and
exhibitions serve an inclusive community of students, performers, and exhibiting artists
diverse in age, ability, experience, ethnicity, and geography. In the visual arts, theater, music,
and dance, HCA annually offers over 200 classes to more than 1,000 students, from
preschool to seniors, drawn from more than 40 neighboring cities and towns. In 2015 the HCA
opened its new arts center, with newly renovated classrooms, a new 200-seat performance
space, and new gallery spaces. The Delbridge Family Performance Space and the Lotvin
Family Gallery annually present dozens of productions and exhibitions.
