The CBOI will be undertaking a Concert Tour of China as part of the World Expo, Shanghai from 19th to 28th July, 2010. The tour will require the Orchestra to raise significant levels of additional funding but offers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to our players and their families.

Further details of the Tour will be posted on this website as they become available.

Following the success of last year’s Strauss Ball, The Cross Border Orchestra of Ireland is pleased to announce that this year’s event will be held at the Fairways Hotel, Dundalk on 18th December, 2010.

As usual, tickets are already selling fast for the Orchestra’s night of the year and you will soon be able to reserve your table on-line at the CBOI website.

On 26^th March the music of Johnny Cash will be brought to life at the Crowne Plaza Hotel Dundalk.

The show is fronted by Kevin Stanley and includes almost all of the Stanley family. Kevin his wife Jane, sons Daire and David all play in the band accompanied on lead guitar by Gavin Wynne and on Harmonica by the evergreen Michael English.

The group assembled in 2007 and performed their show as a fund raiser for a Kenyan Education project in Nairobi. There followed a series of successful performances in Jackies , the Lisdoo, and Hotel Curracloe in  Wexford,  all in aid of charities such as Multiple Sclerosis and the National Council for the Blind.

In Oct 2008 the group were invited to Cologne in Germany where they performed  to a captive audience at the “Bessenkammer “ folk theatre.

The show is much in demand and the group will take to the stage once again this March to raise funds for the Cross Border Orchestra of Ireland.

Kevin has been a fan of Johnny Cash since his childhood and enjoys recreating his idols music live on stage. The set includes almost all of the classic Cash hits and is truly a tribute to “The man in black”. The group have been supported in their presentations by many local talents including Anne Marie Conlon,  Lynsey O’Neill, Shalom Coburn, Paula O’ Neill, Bernie Balfe, Maureen (Stanley) O’Reilly, Andrew McKeown, Conor Boyle, Bobby McCarthy, Mark Matthews, the Taggart sisters Eva and Aishling and Kevins youngest daughter Katie. Always keen to encourage emerging local talent the group have enlisted the services of Aoife McCann this time round and Kevin promises a few more surprises on the night.

A particular mention is due to the bands artistic designer Sean McMahon who has produced the ticket and poster design for each show.

Tickets for this show are available through Baldwin Jewellers, Dundalk and Lynch’s Londis, Blackrock. The support acts will take to the stage at 9.30 sharp and if past presentations are anything to go by the evening promises to be a complete sell out.

Doors are open at 8pm and patrons are advised to come early to get a premium seat.

She held the same position back in 2005 when the orchestra, which brings together young people from the two communities in Northern Ireland with those from the Republic, played at Carnegie Hall and at an event in Dorchester, Mass.

Now, the 130-musician outfit – this time with 105 new faces – is getting ready for upcoming concerts at the Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, and at Armory Track & Field Center in Washington Heights.

For the full article visit Irish Echo Online.

After winning standing ovations from here to the US and beyond, the Cross-Border Orchestra of Ireland is now under serious financial pressure, writes Arminta Wallace

ON A SUNDAY afternoon the campus of the Dundalk Institute of Technology is a tranquil place. In the background are the Cooley Mountains and, beyond, the Mournes. The horizon of the campus itself is dominated by a wind turbine which generates some 60 per cent of the college’s electricity needs as it turns in a slow, majestic circle. Inside the college’s theatre building, however, all is hustle and bustle and excited chatter. In a corridor, young people are lined up clutching passports plus blue forms and green forms. A young man wearing a Hendrix T-shirt hurries past, a trombone tucked under his elbow. Around the corner, a girl is doing twirly cheerleader-type things with a set of drumsticks.

These are the members of the Cross-Border Orchestra of Ireland. They’re from both sides of the Border, they’re aged between 12 and 24, and they’re rehearsing for their forthcoming concerts in the Helix in Dublin and the Waterfront Hall in Belfast.

After that, they’re off to the Big Apple to play at the home of the New York Philharmonic, Lincoln Center. In the meantime, they’re clearly having a ball. But that doesn’t mean they’re getting off lightly on the musical front. Inside the theatre itself, the orchestra’s chief conductor Gearoid Grant is on the warpath. “Never mind laughing when you should have been practising,” he tells his second violins. “Next week I’m DEFINITELY gonna ask you individually. Right. Riverdance, section D. Let’s go.”

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For the full article visit Irish Times.com.

RTE filming documentary on the CBOI

(check back for more details)

to webcast

Cross-Cultural Youth Festival

on

October 27th, 2009

The Cross Border Orchestra of Ireland (CBOI), Ireland’s most acclaimed youth orchestra, has announced its presentation of The Crossing, Celebrating Cultures and Connections on October 29, 2009. The event will take place at 8 PM at Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center in New York City.

One of Europe’s leading youth orchestra conductors, Maestro Gearóid Grant, will conduct the concert, and featured performers include renowned tenor Emmanuel Lawler and piper Patrick Martin.

They will perform alongside Drum and Piping Corps and be accompanied onstage by a variety of Children’s Choirs from select schools across New York.

The CBOI was founded in 1995 by former music teacher Sharon Treacy-Dunne as a means of bringing young people from different backgrounds and communities together through the powerful medium of music.

The CBOI celebrates youth, music and peace, and hopes to bring that message with them as they tour the United States. “I believe through music we can empower young people to help in the healing of their differences, and overcome the division of race and religion by teaching children tolerance. They are the future of cultural transformation,” Treacy-Dunne said. The Orchestra is currently comprised of 130 young people from around Ireland, aged 12-24 years.

In addition to its core membership, CBOI provides essential musical education to over 5000 children from Primary and Secondary Schools all over Ireland and often fills a void where no musical outlet exists.

For the full story visit the Irish Examiner USA