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The Irish
Tenors
Recording
Artists
Since their first special for
public television in March 1999, the Irish Tenors have been
thrilling audiences around the world with their concert performances
of traditional Irish songs and music from other genres.
The Irish Tenors first came
together in 1998 for a concert at the Royal Dublin Society
Main Hall, from which came The Irish Tenors, their
first public television special. The powerful performances
of the Irish Tenors -- originally John McDermott, Anthony
Kearns and Ronan Tynan -- took their self-titled CD to the
top of the Billboard world music charts and created
an enthusiastic following for their rich interpretation of
traditional Irish songs.
Finbar Wright joined the tenors
for The Irish Tenors: Live From Belfast when John
McDermott was unable to fully participate, having suffered
the loss of his mother shortly before the concert taping.
Wright proved such a successful and popular addition that
he has continued to tour and record with the Irish Tenors.
Anthony was born on August
17, 1971 in Kiltealy , County Wexford. It was in 1990
that Anthony entered a singing competition in Dublin. He sang
'The Impossible Dream' and then 'Danny Boy' for an encore,
and ended up winning the competition. His big break finally
came in October 1993 when the Gay Byrne radio show held a
contest 'Ireland's Search for a Tenor' in conjunction with
the launch of the new ten-pound note.
Anthony won the competition
with one of his most outstanding performances. In 1995 and
1996 Anthony won the Dermot Troy Trophy for oratorio and was
voted the best male singer at the Waterford International
Festival of light opera for his portrayal of Frederic in Gilbert
and Sullivan's 'Pirates of Penzance'. In 1998 producers TV
Matters and Radius Television were searching for 3 Tenors
to create a new performing trio to appear in a US television
special and Anthony was on top of the list.
Born in Kinsdale, County Cork, Finbar Wright
began his musical education at the age of six. His formal
studies in the vocal arts did not come until 1984 at the Cork
School of Music. In 1986 he won all the major singing awards
at Feis Ceoil, Dublin. He began his professional career in
1989 and already it spans a dazzling spectrum of achievement.
Everything from singing the title role in Mozart’s "Clemenza
De Tito" at the National Concert Hall, Dublin to bringing
five thousand people to their feet at the legendary Chicago
theatre in a concert of popular song.
Finbar has emerged in just a few years as one
of Ireland’s great romantic singers. He has hosted his
own highly rated television series for RTE and undertaken
major concert tours of Canada, USA and Australia. On a previous
Australian trip he toured with the world famous Melbourne
Symphony Orchestra.
Though Ronan Tynan’s
singing career has made him a star, his personal story of
triumph in the face of adversity is the stuff of which legends
are made. Ronan was born forty years ago with lower limb disability.
When he was twenty, his legs had to be amputated below the
knee after an auto accident caused complications. Just weeks
after the operation, he was climbing up the steps of his college
dorm. Within a year, he was winning gold medals in the disabled
games. Between 1981 and 1984, Ronan amassed eighteen gold
medals and fourteen world records.
It was this kind of determination that soon propelled
him to conquer a whole new field. He became the first disabled
person ever admitted to the National College of Physical Education,
and then a full-fledged Medical Doctor, specializing in Orthopedic
Sports Injuries, with a degree from prestigious Trinity College.
Encouraged to study voice by his father, Ronan
won both the John McCormick Cup for Tenor Voice and the BBC
talent show Go For It less than one year after beginning to
study music. The following year, Ronan won the prestigious
International Operatic Singing Competition in Maumarde, France.
His debut Sony album became a top five hit in two weeks, going
platinum shortly thereafter. His popularity in the U.S. remains
strong as seen by his rendition of the National Anthem for
the World Series in New York.
As The Irish Tenors,
Anthony Kearns, Ronan Tynan and Finbar Wright have sold more
than 1.5 million albums, and the tenors' first two albums
have been on the Billboard World Music Chart continuously
for two years.
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