The programme of gala concerts has just been announced and includes:
Gala Opening Concert – Fleischmann Choir, Cork School of Music Symphony Orchestra and the Dachau Liedertafel Choir present Gala Fleischmann Concert
National Chamber Choir of Ireland
Anúna
Fleischmann International Trophy Competition
Closing Gala Concert
12 choirs have been selected from around the world to participate in the prestigious Fleischmann International Trophy Competition. Finland, Germany, Japan, Singapore, The Czech Republic, Norway, Slovenia, Philippines and Ireland will all be represented.
If you and your choir want to take part in National Competitions, you’ve got until January 31st to submit your application – all the info is here.
I had a fabulous time at the Gloria annual Christmas concert last night. It was my first time hearing them and my gosh can they sing?! They had a lovely repertoire of traditional and contemporary songs, some of which I’d never heard of before and made the experience all the more refreshing. If you missed the gigs this week well you’ll be tickled to know they’ve got a special Christmas album that you can order via the website or download on iTunes.
Looking forward to their 15th anniversary gig at the National Concert Hall in June 2010 already. By the way, they’re looking for sopranos and basses to join them – all the info is here.
If you fancy catching some carols over the next while here’s some of what’s on around Dublin:
I heard this song on the radio this morning and have probably listened to it 20 times since. I’d forgotten how much I love his voice, his lyrics, his interpretations of the songs of others and above all his style of guitar playing which happened about when he had to alter his method due to a serious round of tendonitis.
So who is Luka Bloom? Well he’s the younger brother of Christy Moore born Kevin Barry Moore in Kildare in 1955. The stage name is a marriage between Luka from Suzanne Vega’s song ‘My name is Luka’ and Bloom from James Joyce’s Ulysses.
He has released a stack of albums over the years with his own rather unique flavour of folk/soul/jazz running through them. Luka is live in the National Concert Hall this Saturday with Eddi Reader as part of the ESB BEO Celtic Music Festival 09. Check out more of his music on lukabloom.com or say howdy on Facebook.
I happened upon this video below earlier when indulging in some of his live clips on YouTube. It was filmed as part of a documentary about him called ‘My Name is Luka’ a stone’s throw from my house in Ballyvaughan, Co.Clare where he apparently spends quite a bit of time. He talks about how songs can connect people and places even if they’ve never been there before. Got some gorgeous shots of the beach in too – look forward to visiting it at the weekend.
All the talk on Twitter about The Waterboys earlier brought this tune stomping back into my head & it refuses to leave. I had forgotten how much I love their music. Not sure if there’s some connection or something we don’t know about but down home these guys always seemed to feature frequently on local radio growing up, namely Galway Bay FM (Clare FM is out of range in parts of The Burren – random factoid!).
They’re one of those bands that there was consensus on when travelling in the car with mum or dad – the radio always got turned up Good memories, great tunes, should be a really great gig at the Galway Arts Festival at the end of the month.
Mike and Steve are both on Twitter, their rather nifty website is here and @darraghdoyle is meeting Mike later for an interview for culch.ie so keep an eye on that over the next few days for the results. Vive les Waterboys
I had a fabulous time at the 
Good memories, great tunes, should be a really great gig at the