‘An Evening of Song’, a concert of singing performances by two local singing teachers and their students held recently in Boho Parish Church, was a great success, with plans for it to become an annual event.
Organised by Fermanagh-born professional tenor, Andrew Irwin, and local singer and singing teacher David Robertson, in conjunction with Boho Parish Church, the evening featured an array of performances of traditional Irish, sacred, musical theatre and popular songs from the two professionals and their students.
Speaking to The Impartial Reporter about the success of the concert, Andrew said: “It went really well.
“There was an attendance of between 60 and 70 audience members,” he added, noting that seeing this number of people in Boho Parish Church was very encouraging to his singing students, many of whom had never performed solo in front of an audience before.
“It was a great opportunity for them.”
Commenting that his students enjoyed their performances, Andrew said: “I have a young 10-year-old student, Christina Quinn, who I don’t think has ever sung on her own before, in front of anyone beyond mum and dad.
“She was very nervous, but in the end, I’m pretty sure she became the darling of the audience.”
Another of Andrew’s more experienced students, Cara Murphy, enjoyed the opportunity to perform some of her solo repertoire that she wouldn’t often get to sing in front of people.
“She was singing some of the stuff from her musical theatre grade and they went down a treat.
“There were three other students that David Robertson invited to come – Isabella Kyle, Charlotte and April McGuigan – and I got the opportunity to work with them the day before the concert, to prepare them for it.
“David and I split our students and I worked with them on technique, and he worked with them on performance and interpretation,” said Andrew.
On the evening, both Andrew and David treated audience members to performances.
‘Impressively played’
“David rather impressively played the piano and sang, and I sang two songs from my album as well as singing ‘The Lost Chord’, which is a song about an organist trying to find a particular chord that they found heavenly, and had never been able to find it again.
“It’s a beautiful song, and I dedicated it to my granny, who passed away last year.
“For more than 60 years she had played the organ in Boho, so I thought that was a fitting tribute,” said Andrew.
David sang a few German songs and other popular pieces.
Following the success of the An Evening Song concert, Andrew plans to return next year to make it an annual event.
“There’s nothing you can swap, in terms of experience, for a live performance, and [it’s great] for me to see how my students react to a live performance, then to see simply how much the audience enjoy what [is the result of the hard work they put in every week].
“The end result is an enjoyable communal thing and what they are doing as young musicians, is they are giving.
“It’s not a competition ¬– it’s an opportunity for everyone to come together and share an experience,” he told this newspaper.
Although Andrew is busy with his own professional career as a tenor, he still has some availability to teach more students. If interested, you can contact him at: andrewirwintenor@gmail.com.
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