5th July
Conductor John Daly Goodwin Performs at St John’s Sandymount
Percy French’s parish connections highlighted.
Distinguished conductor John Daly Goodwin, a Great Grand Nephew of much–loved songwriter and artist Percy French, will bring the A Viva Voce Festival Chorus of New York to Dublin for a performance of Songs Across the Sea on Friday 5th July at 8.00pm at St John the Evangelist Church, Park Avenue, Sandymount, Dublin 4. Tickets (€20) are available from www.Eventbrite.ie and at door. Seating is unreserved so come early!
The programme will include Folk Songs and Spirituals arranged by Robert De Cormier; Old American Songs arranged by Aaron Copland; and the conductor’s own arrangements of songs by Percy French including such favourites as The Mountains of Mourne and Are Ye Right There, Michael.
The A Viva Voce Festival Chorus is a group of singers from New York City that share a love of singing, travel, good food and fine company. The members are drawn from the multitude of fine choruses that perform in New York. A Viva Voce can be loosely translated as “by word of mouth.” The Festival Chorus gathered as word of a concert tour to Ireland was spread through that community of singers.
John Daly Goodwin is delighted to make his concert debut in Ireland with his musical friends. During his thirty–seven year career, he has led concerts in major venues in the US at the Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, and around the world including The Grand Theater in Shanghai, Palacio de Bellas Artes, Sala Nezahualcóyotl and OllinYolitzli in Mexico City, the Cathedrals of Notre Dame and Chartres in France, and the Basilica of San Marco in Venice. From 1987 to 2012 Mr. Goodwin served as Music Director of the New York Choral Society, leading this respected symphonic chorus in numerous concerts in New York and on many international tours
John Daly Goodwin has family connections with St John’s Church in Sandymount through his Great Grandparents, Dr Charles De Burgh Daly and his wife Emily who lived on Park Avenue. Emily was a sister of Percy French and edited a collection of his work titled Prose, Poems and Parodies of Percy French. Percy French was also a Sandymount resident for a period when he lived on St John’s Road.
Following the concert at St John’s, the A Viva Voce Festival Chorus of New York will give performances on 7th July at Kylemore Abbey in Connemara, on 10th July at the Percy French Festival in Castlecoote, Co. Roscommon, and on 12th July at St Peter’s Church in Bandon, Co. Cork where Mr Goodwin also has deep family ties.
