Queensland Pops Orchestra: Celtic Celebration

Queensland Pops Orchestra: Celtic Celebration

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Posted 2014-02-18 by John Andrewfollow

Sat 08 Feb 2014 - Sat 01 Mar 2014


Those of us who were fortunate enough to have brought the New Year in with the Queensland Pops Orchestra, with Rosario La Spina, Emily Burke, Elizabeth Lewis and Jason Barry-Smith were raring to go as Rabbie Burns prepared to meet St Patrick.

Nor were we disappointed.

New Year's Eve was very good. Celtic Celebration was even better.

Kathleen Procter-Moore managed to do that very difficult double – combining a wonderful voice, clearly operatically trained, with beautiful tone and superb range with a great feel for the folk idiom – both Scottish and Irish. I have lost count of the number of times I have heard "Danny Boy" played and sung – and I have never heard it sung with more feeling and sensitivity. The sing-a-longs worked well – the audience joining in so enthusiastically that even those of us who are vocally challenged felt free to take part.

But this was not a one woman show. Far from it. "Murphy's Pigs" combined the irreverence mandatory for a good Irish come-all-ye with wonderful musicality. A singing group with at least three excellent solo singers is rare. "Murphy's Pigs" are such a group, and their backing ranged from folk, to rock, to jazz, and their musicality extended to playing with apparent ease alongside the full orchestra.

The Queensland Police Pipes and Drums stirred the blood, and we had the double pleasure of seeing superb dancing in both the Irish and Scottish traditions – with the Thistle Highland Studio and the Watkins Academy of Irish music.

We were entertained and engaged for the entire evening, and the finale, which gave everyone a chance to shine, was a thing of beauty and a joy for ever. The audience left with a spring in their step and a song on their lips.


The show happens again at Caloundra on 22 Feb and the Gold Coast on 1 March. It is well worth seeing.

#concerts
#music
#february
!date 08/02/2014 -- 01/03/2014
%wnbrisbane
203797 - 2023-06-16 05:27:38

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