Denver — Margot Krimmel and Beth Leachman, two of Colorado's most accomplished Celtic female artists, will take the stage at Tuft Theater at Swallow Hill Music Association on Saturday, December 8 at 8 p.m.

Denver native Margot Krimmel began her musical career at the age of three singing whatever came into her head. As a teenager she mastered guitar by watching and listening to her older brother, Max, fingerpick his own handcrafted guitars. Fifteen years later, living in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, a friend asked if she could store her Celtic harp for a few months. With a harp in the living room and a book by Sylvia Woods called Teach Yourself to Play Folk Harp, a new direction was sparked. Margot continued to study the harp by taking lessons: folk harp with Sylvia Woods, jazz harp with Deborah Henson-Conant, and classical pedal harp with Helen Hope. Infusing their expertise with her own swing/jazz/blues guitar background, Margot has a fresh, innovative approach to harp. Accolades include First Place awards from the Longs Peak Scottish Highland Festival and the Pop and Jazz Harp Festival.

Beth Leachman grew up in Western Colorado, where she developed an interest in folk music at an early age. One of three triplets, Beth grew up making music with her sisters, singing in choirs since elementary school and playing in band and orchestra. She learned old-style Irish singing in the West of Ireland, where she spent a year traveling, visiting sessions, and studying Irish-Gaelic in the Connemara Gaeltacht and and the National University in Galway. Instantly taken with the words and melodies of Irish traditional music during her first visit to Ireland as an adult, Leachman added the bodhran and the Celtic harp to her list of talents. For eight years, Leachman toured the U.S. with the Boston-based traditional band Siucra ("shoo-kruh" means sugar in Irish-Gaelic). Beth sang as a guest artist with the Chieftains for their 2002 appearance Colorado's Pike's Peak Center, and has shared the stage with many other Celtic artists, including Gerry O'Beirne, Randal Bays, and Roger Landes.