Irish Traditional Ceili Band from Madison, Wisconsin

Alan Ng – fiddle, melodeon  ¤  Bryan Whiting – flute  ¤  Chelcy Bowles – piano

"absolutely magnificent ... beautiful music ... your timing and tempo and your selection of reels/jigs made it very easy and a pleasure to dance, too." – Tony Ryan, dance master in from Galway, about our March 2009 debut.

Bryan Whiting and Alan Ng have not only been polishing their flute-fiddle duet for twenty years, they are also longtime set dancers who love the thrill of great dance music driving great dancers. Chelcy Bowles has been conjuring imaginative rhythm and harmony on harp and piano for these two friends for even longer.

Alan Ng was a founding member of the Public House Ceili Band, formed in 1995 and the first band in North America to record an album of music for set dancers. Public House was a featured ceili band at Milwaukee Irish Fest for many years. Alan and Chelcy Bowles also performed widely for many years with uilleann piper Bill Peden as members of The Snug, a classic Irish instrumental trio. Chelcy is a professor emerita of music at UW-Madison specializing in adult music education. Bryan Whiting and Alan share a long history as session mates, as veterans of the Milwaukee set-dancing scene, and simply as neighbors who keep the old Irish "ceili house" tradition alive.

Capitol Ceili Band made its first Milwaukee Irish Fest appearance in August 2010 and has returned many times!

Booking: Contact Alan Ng at alan@alan-ng.net or 608-255-3996.

CCB at Midwinter Set Dance Weekend 2009

The Capitol Ceili Band debuted at the 2009 Midwinter Set Dance Weekend in Milwaukee.

Prepared Sets

  • Antrim Square
  • Ballycommon
  • Ballyvourney Jig Set (including the "Express" version)
  • Birr
  • Borlin Jenny (Bantry Bay version, to single reels)
  • Boyne
  • Caledonian
  • Cashel
  • Claddagh
  • Clashmore
  • Connemara
  • Corofin Plain
  • Derrada
  • Fermanagh
  • Kilfenora
  • Killyon
  • Labasheeda (including properly-played flings in the 5th figure)
  • Lancers
  • Mezerts (the Cork set, to jigs)
  • Moycullen
  • Myserks (the Clare set, to reels)
  • Newport
  • North Kerry
  • Orange and Green (the Clare version)
  • Orange and Green (the Limerick version)
  • Paris (including the hornpipe/march arrangement of the 5th figure)
  • Plain (aka Clare Plain)
  • Rosscahill
  • Sliabh Luachra
  • South Sligo Lancers
  • Waltz Cotillion
  • West Kerry
  • Williamstown