MUSIC

Verizon Wireless Theater  presents Celtic Thunder.

Get ready for all the fun, excitement and entertainment of Celtic Thunder LIVE, coming this Fall! Celtic Thunder is hitting the road again and embarking on a North American beginning September 25, 2010. Be sure to clear your schedule for the concert event of the year, and secure your tickets!

This stylish and high energy trip through some of the great songs of the last 30 years is pure showbiz! It is a tribute from Celtic Thunder to the legacy they have inherited from the great entertainers of the past, and a mark of how far they themselves have traveled as performers, in a few short years. It evokes an era of big bands and boulevards, top hats and tails and singing and dancin’ in the rain! It makes for irresistible listening as the principals from this generation pay their respects to the stars of an earlier time. In the true tradition of variety the music covers a mix of styles, of songs and of singers, as the lads salute their musical heroes- from Fred Astaire to Neil Diamond, from Jim Croce to Chicago, from Michael Buble to The Beach Boys!

Each member features with two songs, one a serious workout, the other a bit of pure fun and a chance to let the hair down! These lighter choices have George stomping around to The Proclaimer’s ‘My Life With You’, while Ryan takes on the persona of a Chicago gangster with ‘Bad, Bad Leroy Brown’. Keith slips right into character with a Surfer Medley and Damian becomes a bit of a boulevardier with ‘Standing On The Corner’. Paul steps up to the plate as an accomplished song and dance man with the rooty-tooty “Doo Wacka Doo’, specially written by Phil Coulter.

One big surprise package is guitarist Neil who not only joins Ryan and Keith in a haunting, close harmony version of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’ but also delivers a superb, soulful solo on the Disney classic ‘When You Wish Upon A Star’. The show is rounded off by a couple of ensemble numbers, featuring all six singers, the perennial ‘Amazing Grace’ and U2’s anthemic “Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.’

The Artists of Celtic Thunder:

Damian McGinty is the youngest member; Damian is only 16 years old, and has just finished his fifth year of middle school in Derry, Northern Ireland. He lives with his parents, and his brother and sister, and when he’s not singing he loves playing football. Damian began singing at a young age, winning his first music competition at the age of six. Currently, Damian is a member of the Holy Family Folk Group in Derry. Damian was involved at school in the recording of a charity CD, which raised $2000 for a local charity. Damian’s true beginning in the music business came after winning a singing competition in 2006 where the prize was to record some tracks on CD. His public profile was significantly boosted and he made appearances at various concerts: the Millennium Forum for Derry City football team, and for the Red Cross. A copy was sent to Phil Coulter, who passed it to Sharon Browne. As a result, Damian was invited to audition as a singer for Celtic Thunder. Damian’s excitement and enthusiasm for Celtic Thunder is infectious, and after seeing him sing, there was no way he would not be part of this stellar group of young men.

Keith Harkin comes from County Derry and from the age of four, Keith has been wowing audiences with his beautiful voice and musical virtuosity. As well as possessing a voice spun from gold, he is also an accomplished songwriter and guitarist. Now 22, Keith has played at the Tavistock Festival in the UK and was the lead in BBC’s Dha Theanga in 2006 – also composing and recording songs for the show. Keith has shared his talents by opening for acts such as John Martyn, The Undertones and David Kitt in 2007. It was a serendipitous day when Keith returned from London one afternoon (where he was recording some of his own music) and heard about the auditions for Celtic Thunder, as they were already in progress! He called into the auditions on spec just as they were finishing, auditioned and was very happy to be asked then and there to attend the final auditions in Dublin and was ultimately selected as one of the five soloists for the Celtic Thunder show. Which brings Keith up to now... a Soloist in CELTIC THUNDER - The Show, and at the beginning of a long and successful career in Music.

Ryan Kelly comes from The Moy in Co. Tyrone. A qualified Chartered Accountant, he has a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Queen’s University, Belfast and a Graduate Diploma in Advanced Accounting. Ryan has been singing since the age of seven in various choirs but most enjoys singing Irish Traditional and Folk Music – and became singing champion at the SCOR competition in March 2007. Ryan, now 30, finished second in a nationwide BBC television music competition in 2003 and has performed alongside Westlife, Girls Aloud and Simply Red in the televised Children in Need Live Charity Concert at the Odyssey in Belfast to an audience of over 8,000. Ryan is actively involved in Amateur Dramatics and has played the lead in Blood Brothers and the role of Judas Iscariot in Jesus Christ Superstar. Auditioning for Celtic Thunder and being chosen as one of the five successful vocalists has taken Ryan’s passion for Traditional Irish Music to a professional level, and he is delighted with his career change!

Paul Byrom has been hailed as Ireland’s premier young tenor and it is easy to see why. Singled out at an early age as having a special vocal talent, the Dublin-born tenor was encouraged to pursue his dream and began voice study and training at the tender age of seven. He studied under Dr. Veronica Dunne, Ireland’s leading lady of opera and a renowned vocal teacher. A professional singer by his early teens, Paul recorded his first album as a boy soprano when he was 14. He released his album VELVET in Ireland in 2005 to great critical acclaim, placing him firmly at number two in the music charts. Since then, Paul has gone on to sell out concerts at the prestigious National Concert Hall in Dublin for the past three years, while also performing at major sporting events in Ireland and abroad. Paul’s talent has taken him far, and the highlights of his career to date include performing for many dignitaries such as Irish President Mary McAleese and Emperor Akihito of Japan. He has just recorded a solo Christmas album this year. His vocal style and range have brought him to the attention of illustrious fellow Irish musicians, composers and singers such as Bono, Phil Coulter and Shay Healy and when the auditions for Celtic Thunder were announced, Phil Coulter contacted Paul and invited him to audition for Sharon Browne. He was naturally selected as one of the five brilliant soloists of Celtic Thunder. “I am thrilled to be part of the Celtic Thunder project and to work with Sharon and Phil,” says Paul. “We had so much fun making the show, and it is very exciting to think about bringing it to US audiences.”

George Donaldson is a self-taught and accomplished musician; George plays guitar, flute, mandolin, bodhran, and banjo. George’s love of Celtic music stems from his childhood in Glasgow, where his main influence was his late father Bernard, who had a love and appreciation of all kinds of live music played from the heart. Nothing pleased his father more than seeing George becoming a successful musician and playing at his beloved Celtic Park in front of 65,000 fans at the opening match of the 2000/01 Season. Now at 40 years of age, George is a well-established singer in the vibrant Glasgow and West of Scotland Folk scene. He has recorded folk sessions for BBC Scotland and made appearances at Glasgow’s own Celtic Connections and the Glasgow West End Festival. To date, George has toured in America, Canada and Europe, and has developed a fondness for Germany, where he has a great following and his love of the country, its people and its culture has encouraged him, as an eternal student, to attempt to master the language...! George loves being a part of and a performer in Celtic Thunder, it is a new direction for him and the most exciting of his career to date.

Music has always been a major part of Neil Byrne’s life. Born into a musical family, Neil’s father has worked as a professional musician his entire life and his mother is a huge fan of all music. By the the age of 5, Neil was gripped by rhythm, which instinctively lead him to drum on anything in front of him including the kitchen table at dinnertime, which played on the patience of family members at times!

He began learning the guitar when he was 7, hugely helped and encouraged by his father. Neil also began playing piano from an early age, and this skill was to become a positive writing tool for him in the future. He also became a big fan of bass guitar and spent hours playing along to old LPs. By the time he turned 11 Neil, his brother and cousin had started a band, their debut performance a twenty-minute slot at a private function. The band also performed regularly at school concerts, which in turn lead to entering an All-Ireland Music and Arts competition where they won first place over 33,000 participants. Neil’s band also appeared on Irelands national television station RTE and played open-air summer festivals around Ireland.

At 15 Neil began playing with his father’s band, performing at corporate events, balls, weddings, etc. The following year Neil’s father retired from the music scene and handed the reigns over to Neil. He was fortunate to be playing (and studying) alongside one of Irelands most renowned jazz bass players, Frank Hess, and Frank began teaching him about musical arrangements. At the same time Neil was playing base guitar and lead vocals of a retro funk band, performing a lot of American classic 70’s music, from artists such as Earth, Wind and Fire, Stevie Wonder and George Benson. It was at this stage that he began to discover what he had to offer from a song writing and composition standpoint.

He began collaborating with a talented young Dublin band, and went on to make a debut album, which they performed at O2 in the Park Festival in Dublin to an audience of 100,000 people. Neil has also had a single in the Top 10 in the Irish Charts, and has won acclaim and awards for his song writing in competitions in Ireland and abroad.

A mutual friend approached Neil and asked him to play at a function for one of Ireland’s most renowned songwriters and producers, Phil Coulter. He began working with Phil on various different projects and was honored to be asked to play bass guitar in his backing band. From here Neil was invited to record backing vocals for the Celtic Thunder debut DVD, and subsequently play lead guitar player for the live show. Neil would have to say the most memorable and prestigious performance of his career to date was in Radio City Music Hall in New York City. Since then he has toured America and Canada extensively with Celtic Thunder and most recently has joined Ryan, Paul, Keith, George and Damian as the 6th leading vocalist with Celtic Thunder.