Just in time for the holidays, Halifax-based fiddler Adrianna Ciccone and harpist Ellen Gibling have released their first album as a duo, The Pear Tree. The eight-track recording is a collection of favourite carol melodies combined with original and traditional tunes.
Ciccone and Gibling are currently on tour to promote the album with shows across Nova Scotia, including Riverport (Dec 5), New Glasgow (Dec 7), Annapolis Royal (Dec 13) and Canning (Dec 14). The duo will also stop in Halifax at St. Andrew’s Church (6036 Coburg Rd, Halifax) on December 8. Tickets and information are available online.
In this Q&A, Ciccone and Gibling discuss their music and the new album, which is available now on Bandcamp.
This interview has been edited.
Please introduce yourself to our readers.
We love playing together and hope having a duo Christmas project will give us a recurring yearly excuse to put on concerts and tour the Maritimes.
We are Adrianna Ciccone and Ellen Gibling, both musicians living in the North End of Halifax with a background in traditional music.
Adrianna studied fiddle at Berklee College of Music. Ellen was introduced to traditional Irish music at Halifax and Montreal sessions and studied music at the University of Limerick in Ireland.
We have both played and taught at many festivals and camps across the country.
How do you describe your new album, The Pear Tree?
The Pear Tree is a collection of our favourite carol melodies combined with original and traditional tunes.
Everything on the album is instrumental. We arranged it for fiddle and harp and recorded it live off the floor in Graeme Campbell’s studio.
We experimented with a few twists on these well-known melodies—changing time signatures, overlaying one tune with another, exploring unlikely pairings of melodies, and continuously switching the roles of the fiddle and harp. The album is warm, intimate, and playful.
Why The Pear Tree as the title?
We wanted to find a title and image evocative of the holidays without being overused. The Pear Tree is familiar as a holiday-adjacent tree from the song Twelve Days of Christmas, but it doesn’t get as much attention as holly, mistletoe, and the classic coniferous Christmas tree.
How did the two of you come to work together on this project?
We were attending a beautiful Dusty Halos album release show together around the holidays in 2023 and started chatting about our relationship with Christmas music. We both suddenly realized we were ready to embrace seasonal music, having spent many years trying to keep a safe distance from it. We have similar musical approaches and interests, and both were excited about the chance to work together in the studio and play together more.
Why a Christmas album?
We love playing together and hope having a duo Christmas project will give us a recurring yearly excuse to put on concerts and tour the Maritimes. Unlike some of our other projects, which have a fairly niche audience, we hoped that a holiday album might be relevant to more people and allow us to play in a wider variety of venues. A Christmas album also gives us an excuse to get festive – wear the sparkly sweaters, get out the tinsel, serve hot chocolate, and be part of a fun community holiday atmosphere.
What is your favourite song from the album to perform and why?
The opening track from the album is particularly fun to play, as it is a journey through different festive moods. After an atmospheric, sparkling introduction, it begins with the French children’s song Petit Papa Noel. This transforms into Ding Dong Merrily On High, first in a more lyrical version and then in a lively polka version, which tumbles down into one of our favourite Irish tunes, The Ardgroom, a polka by Finbarr Dwyer.
What’s next for Adrianna and Ellen?
We hope to establish a yearly Pear Tree tour and record new yearly singles to keep the project momentum going. We also hope this project will allow us to teach and perform together farther afield in the coming years.
In 2025, Adrianna will be busy with her music school, Merry Time Music Co., and performing around Nova Scotia. Ellen is particularly looking forward to performing with the band Many Worlds at the Open Waters Festival in January and doing a house concert tour of Manitoba with fiddler Olivia Barrett in April.