Thursday March 22nd 2007
FCJ charity concert
Junior and senior bands at Bunclody FCJ gathered on Friday to launch a charity concert they will host in the National Concert Hall in April.The concert will feature American school band from the Mount St. Charles Academy from Rhode Island on April 16 and money raised will go towards the school and the cancer day care appeal.
Exchanges between the two schools have been taking place since 1995 and the Bunclody school has travelled to Rhode Island on three occasions.
A total of 182 will travel from the US in April, including 167 students aged 14-18 years, to Bunclody to stay in the homes of the FCJ Senior band members.
During their stay they plan to visit Dublin, the Aran Islands and give a farewell concert in the soccer pavilion in Bunclody with both FCJ bands.
The young musicians will be under the guidance of Bunclody music teacher and conductor Gearoid Grant. Gearoid has been a member of the staff since 1972 and has conducted all the principal orchestras in Ireland including the National Symphony Orchestra and RTE Concert Orchestra.
He has been the conductor of the national Youth Orchestra in Ireland since it was formed in 1980 and devised and conducts the acclaimed RTE / Irish Times Music in the Classroom series which introduces music to 30,000 Irish children annually.
The concert will also include internationally acclaimed tenor Anthony Kearns, a past pupil of FCJ Bunclody.
'In school he played the trombone in the band and argued all the time that he'd rather sing,' laughed a spokeswoman for the school.
Anthony is a native of Kiltealy and performed at many of the world's great concert venues with The Irish Tenors and on solo tours including Madison Square Gardens and Sydney Opera House.
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