Celtic Standard Time, a high-energy, acoustic instrumental trio based in D/FW, plays traditional Irish, Scottish, Cape Breton and French Canadian music.  Throughout the past three years the original band members, world class violinist KeyReel Raskolenko and premier guitarist Alex Hand, have appeared regularly at Sundance Square in downtown Fort Worth music series, and have made guest appearances at a number of local festivals, including the Fort Worth Arts Festival and the Decatur Celtic Festival.  Always expanding the range and breadth of their music, Celtic Standard Time has recently brought top D/FW bodhran player, Rick Holt, on board.  Celtic Standard Time is associated with the North Texas Celtic Strings, a music education organization founded by KeyReel Raskolenko. In March 2024, they were the opening act for the renowned Celtic duo, Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas, in Fort Worth.

KeyReel:
Keyreel Raskolenko is violinist, fiddler, composer, arranger and educator in DFW, TX. He plays different music, from Classical to Rock and he is a member of different projects. KeyReel is extremely versatile in his playing styles, mastering classical playing and Celtic tradition. Keyreel is the first ever Russian finalist in the prestigious All-Ireland fleadh in Tullamore. He has attended many folk music festivals as a student, including Alasdair Fraser’s Fiddle Camps on the Isle of Skye (Scotland) in 2010 and 2012. In 2013, he was one of the creators of Celtic-Music.ru, a web-site about Celtic Music life in Russia, and that summer he gave an interview to the Celtic Life Magazine in Canada. Cape Breton Fiddler Association annual festival invited KeyReel as a special guest in 2013. In Moscow, he was a member of four different bands playing traditional Celtic music and bluegrass. The Glasach Trio, one of his projects, was Moscow-based, and toured concerts in U.K. in 2014. He was also a guest artist on Celtic Colours festival in the Fall of 2016, while has been living in Texas and studying at TCU. As fiddle player he played with local band Reel Treble band at North Texas Irish Festival in 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022 and 2023. Also as a core member of Three Pints and a Glass he played on the same festival in 2019. Currently a member of Celtic Standard Time with Alex Hand and Rick Holt.

Alex:
Alex Hand is a premier guitarist on the Texas scene, regularly performing with jazz, Celtic traditional, classic rock and gypsy swing groups. He graduated from the University of North Texas jazz performance program with a masters in 2021 and continues to perform and teach music in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. He studied traditional Balkan music in Bulgaria and Turkey in 2015 and released two self-produced albums of that music with San Francisco jazz players. The second one, The Fast Crusade (2019), won two silver medals in the Global Music Awards in 2023: instrumentalist and concept. Look for his 2024 album, Handsome Answer, on all streaming platforms.

Rick:
Texas based percussionist, Rick Holt, immersed himself in the Irish music culture after he discovered the engaging sound of the bodhran in the early 2000’s. Rick has been playing drums since the age of 6 and earned his bachelor’s degree in Music Education from Troy University. He has performed a variety of musical styles, from classical to rock and musical theater. Recently, as a performer, published composer and arranger, Rick has been exploring the boundaries of Celtic and Irish music and endeavors to apply these insights to the bodhran. He has traveled to Ireland to study bodhran with some of the top players in the world and enjoyed participating in local sessions as he traveled around that country. He has been an active member of the progressive folk/Celtic band Skyland (formerly 5 Second Rule), since 2008. They have performed throughout the Southwest for concerts, festivals and events including the Wildflower Festival, Meyerson Symphony Center and have been featured on Texas Country Reporter.
Rick has been involved in the Irish music community in North Texas since 2003, performing with area artists in bands and sessions, and recording with local musicians. He has served as a board member of the Traditional Irish Music Educator's Society and for over a decade was on the staff of the O'Flaherty Irish Music Retreat. He has been teaching bodhran privately, as well as with the O’Flaherty Irish Music Retreat, The North Texas School of Irish Music and the O'Flaherty Irish Music Youth Camp.

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