Oakland Tribune

By Diane Weddington

Three Irish singers hope Americans will throw off their shoes, dance a little and shed a few tears before they end their concerts in the Bay Area this week. The Irish Tenors Trio will launch their first national American tour at the Paramount Theatre on Saturday, June 2 with a second concert 8 p.m.

Thursday June 7 at the Flint Center in Cupertino. Anthony Kearns, Ronan Tynan and Finbar Wright will perform traditional Irish vocal music and American classics, including many songs from their newest CD, ``Ellis Island.'' '`Our songs are upbeat, funny, comic, heroic and entertaining,'' Wright says. ``We're all fired up for this concert.''

The trio has performed in the U.S. before, most recently in March on Ellis Island in New York harbor, a performance in honor of America's immigrants. The opening number of that program, ``Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears,'' will open the Paramount show and will be one of two the trio will perform on July 4 in Washington, D.C. ``Isle'' is the story of 15-year-old Annie Moore, a young Irish girl from County Cork who was the first immigrant to come through Ellis Island. A bronze statue of Moore commemorates the 1982 opening of the immigration station and honors the 40 percent of Americans whose ancestors were immigrants.

``This is a very special program for us and for our audience,'' Wright says. ``We sing things people like to hear. Our audiences are often Irish or of Irish extraction. The songs are poignant and emotional for the Irish living in the U.S.'' Wrights says he ``becomes a part of the music'' when he sings and so can bring fresh emotions to the classics at each performance. ``I've sung 'Danny Boy' a million times, but I dig deep and maintain the particular level of emotions the song needs, with no trouble.'' He compares singing to acting, and says his training and work as a priest prepared him for a life on stage. Wright studied for the priesthood in Spain. ``I was always singing as part of the priesthood - weddings, baptisms. I studied in Spain, and Spanish has a rich choral tradition.'' As a deacon, Wright even chanted at a Papal Mass with John Paul II in 1979. Wright was a teaching priest and says he enjoyed teaching Latin and Spanish to teen-agers, but his students convinced him he should become a singer. He left the priesthood, married and has children. He says the children are ``budding musicians'' who play cello and piano and will join him in July when school ends in Ireland. ``They've made many American friends and like to visit them~,'' he says.

Wright has been singing since he was 6, but began formal studies at Cork School of Music in 1984. He has also studied with master musicians in Munich, England and Dublin. His solo tours began in 1989 and showcased his wide range of talent, from opera in Dublin to blues in Chicago to traditional songs in Melbourne, Australia. He joined the Irish Tenors in 1998 when original member John McDermott had to leave because of a family death.

Wright, Kearns and Tynan all studied with Veronica Dunne, Ireland's top singing teacher. Dunne was the judge at a singing competition Kearns entered in 1990 in Dublin, and began coaching him then. He launched his professional career in 1993 and has won major awards every year since. Praised by vocal experts as Ireland's finest lyric tenor, Kearns was first choice when in 1998 Radius Television sought a trio to appear in an American special.

Tynan studied at the College of Music in Dublin with Dunne and has performed in France, Italy, England and South Africa. He lost his legs in an auto accident at age 20, but has gone on to win 18 gold medals and set 14 world records in the disabled games. He studied medicine at Trinity College, Ireland and is a doctor a specializing in orthopedic sports injuries.

Each man sings a few personal favorites during the concert. Surprisingly, Wright's favorite is not Irish. ``I like everything we sing, but my favorite is `40 Shades of Green,' written by Johnny Cash. I almost consider him Irish, even though he's not,'' Wright says. Drawing from ``Ellis Island,'' Kearns may solo on ``Macushela'' or ``The Croppy Boy,'' and Tynan will render his version of ``My Wild Irish Rose.'' The tenors' performance probably will include ``God Bless America,'' likely to be the second selection at the July 4 concert. Wright says he expects the concert to be highly emotional and being in the Paramount will be a real plus for the performers. ``We really love the old theaters,'' he says. ``We don't have to recreate feelings because they're already there.'' He also praised the Bay Area, which he first visited six years ago. ``The West Coast is beautiful and we have a large following there. I think San Francisco is the most beautiful city in the U.S. It's like a European city. It has an old feel to it. We are eager to come.''