Celtic Thunder Takes First Symphony Tour to Heinz Hall Tonight

Celtic singing sensation Celtic Thunder takes the Heinz Hall stage tonight, December 9 for their first symphony tour. The group will perform with the full Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra during this one-night-only holiday performance.

Hear songs from their 2013 chart-topping album "Christmas Voices" featuring songs ranging from "Away in a Manger" and "O Holy Night" to the more contemporary "Mary's Boy Child" and "Fairytale of New York." Signature Celtic Thunder hit songs, "Ireland's Call" and "Turning Away," and traditional Irish numbers such as "Dulaman" and "My Land" will be performed in solo and ensemble arrangements among Celtic Thunder's five male soloists: Keith Harkin, Ryan Kelly, Neil Byrne, Colm Keegan and Emmett O'Hanlon.

The performance begins at 7:30 p.m. and tickets are on sale now. Ticket prices range from $35 to $120 and can be purchased atpittsburghsymphony.org or by calling 412-392-4900.

Keith Harkin comes from County Derry in Northern Ireland, where he started performing for the public at the tender age of four, wowing audiences with his beautiful voice and musical talent. Now at 27, Harkin has played to audiences across Europe, Australia, the United States and Canada. He has performed many times at the Tavistock Festival in the United Kingdom, and at the Glasgowbury Festival in Northern Ireland and has composed and recorded songs for the BBC show "Dha Theanga," an Irish language program on the BBC in which he played a lead role. Harkin is a guitar-playing singer-songwriter. He was one of the first artists signed to the Verve Records under the new leadership of Chairman David Foster, the Grammy Award-winning producer who also served as executive producer on Harkin's debut solo CD. The self-titled album's 12 songs range between original compositions and classic covers illustrating Harkin's gifts as both an interpreter and a writer. The song selections on the album truly reflect Harkin's musical passions-"I've learned that there's nothing worse than doing a song you don't love," he says. As a huge Van Morrison fan, Harkin takes particular pride in his version of "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You," performed as a duet with Colbie Caillat. Even though his solo album is on release, Harkin has continued to play an integral role as one of the lead soloists in Celtic Thunder, touring with the show in the United States, Canada and Australia in 2014, as well as taking part in the Celtic Thunder Cruise 2014, sailing from Miami on November 8 to Paradise Island/ Nassau in the Bahamas and to the private island of Thunder Bay in the Caribbean. His career with Celtic Thunder began back in 2007, when returning back to Derry from a recording session in London, Harkin heard about the auditions for Celtic Thunder that were underway and decided to chance calling in just as the auditions were wrapping up. He auditioned and was immediately invited to attend the final auditions in Dublin where he was ultimately selected as one of the principals for the Celtic Thunder show.

Neil Byrne fell in love with music as a kid when he dragged some suitcases down from the attic and started drumming on them. His destiny was sealed when he was six and watched his father's three-piece band play at a wedding. "The sound just completely blew me away," he recalls. "I didn't really understand what I was listening to but I just understood it was absolutely wonderful." If he woke up one day to find that playing music wasn't a career option, Byrne would be designing expensive automobiles. "In addition to being a full-time musician, my dad was a Mercedes mechanic," he explains. "He used to bring home some of the big S-class Mercedes sometimes and as kids, he used to bring us out in them on the duel carriageway." Underage driving adventures aside; music was always Byrne's first love and by the age of 5, he was instinctively drumming on anything in front of him. He swapped his drums for a guitar and added vocals at the recommendation of his dad. "He told me, 'Listen, if you learn to sing, you'll never go hungry.'" Byrne took the advice and started playing professionally with his father's band before branching out into jazz and then forming a retro funk band called Hipple Street that had a fair amount of chart success. At the same time, he was fortunate to play (and study) alongside one of Ireland's most renowned jazz bass players, Frank Hess, and begin to learn about musical arrangements. A mutual friend invited Byrne to play at a function for one of Ireland's most renowned songwriters and producers, Phil Coulter. This led to him playing bass in Phil Coulter's band on a full time basis. From there Byrne was asked to record backing vocals for the Celtic Thunder DVD, then moved to lead guitar and eventually one of the lead vocalists in the show. In 2010, he also released Sensitive Souls, a solo EP, which Hotpress Magazine says, "shows him as a classy singer of soulful pop," proving that his dad knew what he was talking about. Since joining Celtic Thunder, Byrne has toured America, Canada and Australia extensively with the show and joined Keith, George, Ryan and Colm as a lead vocalist.

Ryan Kelly comes from The Moy in County Tyrone in Northern Ireland. Although he studied accountancy at Queens University, Belfast and is a qualified chartered accountant by trade, music and theater have always been Kelly's true passion. He first began singing in public at the age of seven and has won many accolades and awards for his performances, including SCOR 2007, a national Irish Singing Competition, and the BBC's Country Cool competition in 2003. In his solo career, Kelly has performed alongside Westlife, Girls Aloud and Simply Red at a televised "Children In Need" Charity Concert. He also released his solo debut album In Time in October 2011 to great critical acclaim and won an Irish Music Award that same year. Kelly's love of musical theatre has led him to perform the lead role in the Willie Russell musical Blood Brothers and the role of Judas Iscariot in Jesus Christ Superstar. Kelly is a fanatical sports fan and has played Gaelic football and basketball at national level. One of the highlights of Ryan's Celtic Thunder journey so far was the opportunity to stand alongside his Celtic Thunder cast mates in TD Garden in Boston and sing the U.S. national anthem to open a game for his beloved Celtics. One of the original members of Celtic Thunder, Kelly was between banking jobs when his brother told him about the audition for "an Irish touring band of America." Kelly said, "I'm not doing anything else, so I should see what this is all about. At the audition we had to write a few lines about ourselves and what we'd done. Phil (Coulter) saw that I'd just finished playing Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar and it turns out he'd produced the first touring Irish production of it." Celtic Thunder's producer Sharon Browne was looking for someone who could "sing like they had a mean streak" and when Kelly sang as Judas, it all came together. Kelly's love for drama made him the perfect pick for the role of the "rogue" or "Dark Destroyer" in Celtic Thunder Shows. Nothing could have prepared Kelly however for the momentum surrounding Celtic Thunder. "It's great fun being the bad guy," said Ryan. "For me, there's no better role, and they've given me great songs to do it with. Besides, thankfully I'm a much better singer than I was an accountant!" Kelly has toured the United States, Canada and Australia with Celtic Thunder since 2008.

Colm Keegan is 24 years old and hails from Dublin in Ireland. As a schoolboy, Keegan studied under vocal coach Ken Shellard and won several highly acclaimed awards at the Dublin Feis Ceoil singing competition. During this time he was also a lead soloist with the Palestrina Choir (under the direction of Ite O'Donovan) and a regular performer at Dublin's National Concert Hall. Keegan has performed with the Palestrina Choir in Dublin's Pro-Cathedral, New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral and St. Peter's Basilica in Rome where the Pope was in attendance. From this lofty beginning, Keegan went on to join the prestigious Piccolo Lasso Choir and the Habemus Chamber Choir, with whom he recorded several CDs, partook in an extensive European tour and performed as a lead soloist in Spain, Ireland and The Czech Republic. Keegan also has a great love of musical theater and has played the lead role of Sky Masterson inGuys and Dolls and has been cast in a production of Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates Of Penance. Keegan won a music scholarship to attend University College Dublin, where he was conferred with an honors degree in music and Irish in 2011. While he was studying in UCD, he was invited to join the choir of Celtic Woman for their "Songs From The Heart" CD and DVD public television special, and has since toured with the production in the United States, Europe and Japan. He also performed with PBS favorites The Priests at the O2 Arena in Dublin and alongside Irish tenor Peter Corry at the Helix, Dublin. Keegan is a very keen sportsman and plays rugby, Gaelic football and hurling. He has represented Leinster in the Junior Cup for rugby and has been on a Leinster Final winning team for Gaelic Football. In addition to these team sports Colm has also completed several triathlons. He loves travel and new experiences and has travelled widely both with his music career and with the charity Habitat for Humanity, where he has worked building houses with local communities in Ghana and Zambia. Since graduating college in 2011, music has continued to be the main focus in Keegan's life. He is currently honing his skills as a songwriter and a performer and has eclectic musical influences, drawing from his choral, Irish, pop and folk backgrounds, all helping him develop his own style. Keegan was invited to join Celtic Thunder by producer Sharon Browne in May 2012 and was delighted to join with the other principals to become the newest member of the show. He performed with Celtic Thunder for the first time at Harrah's Resort and Casino in Atlantic City in June 2012 and toured with the show in United States and Canada fall tours in 2012 and 2013.

Irish American baritone Emmett O'Hanlon was born and raised in New York City. Now 23 years old, O'Hanlon admits to having been seduced by music from a very early age. His foray into the world of music began with guitar, piano and drum lessons when he was just six years old. He first met his longtime voice teacher, Terence Goff, when he turned eight and began formal voice training at that stage. While he was still in High School, O'Hanlon made the decision to pursue a future in music, specifically singing. Since then he has received a Bachelors Degree in voice from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati, where he also performed as a soloist with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Once he received his undergraduate degree in music, O'Hanlon went on to join the prestigious Julliard School in New York, where he is currently completing a master's degree in voice, studying under the tutelage of Dr. Robert C. White Jr. He also recently took part in the "Julliard in Paris" project, sponsored by the Edmond de Rothschild Foundation. Last season, O'Hanlon also performed in both productions in Julliard Opera's double bill, Britten's Curlew River and Vaughan Williams'Riders to the Sea, as well as in this season's Metropolitan Opera workshop production of The Sorrows of Frederick. At present, he is preparing for the role of Onegin in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin. O'Hanlon has also participated in many classical training programs and has also been an apprentice artist in the Bel Canto Young Artist Mentoring Program at Caramoor. O'Hanlon is not the only musical member of his family. His mother, who hails from Carrick-on Suir in County Tipperary, and his father who comes from County Armagh, both sang and were involved with theater from an early age; his elder brother and younger sister have also both studied music at university. In addition to his passion for music, O'Hanlon is an avid sportsman, who loves to surf and snowboard. He is also a huge fan of American football, baseball and most watersports, which he follows with a keen interest. O'Hanlon first met Celtic Thunder producer Sharon Browne in New York City, where she invited him to audition for the show.

David Brophy held the role of principal conductor of the RTÉ Concert Orchestra from 2007 until 2013. He previously worked with the National Chamber Choir of Ireland and the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra. His career has taken him to many parts of Europe, Africa, America and Canada. While conducting RTÉ NSO, he conducted the orchestra in front of more than 80,000 people at the spectacular opening ceremony of The Special Olympics World Games in 2003, which was televised worldwide, and included performances with U2 and the largest Riverdance troupe ever assembled. Radio broadcasts have been carried on RTÉ, BBC, CBC Television (Canada) and EBU to listeners across Europe, while recordings have been released on Silva Screen and Tara Records labels. His TV appearances include The National Concert Hall's 25th anniversary gala concert entitled Ireland's Finest. As principal conductor of the RTE Concert Orchestra, he had the privilege of making history and conducting the Orchestra in front of Queen Elizabeth II at Dublin Castle on her recent state visit to Ireland. Film credits include Shaun Davey's score for "The Abduction Club."

For more than 117 years, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra has been an essential part of Pittsburgh's cultural landscape. The Pittsburgh Symphony, known for its artistic excellence, is credited with a rich history of the world's finest conductors and musicians, and a strong commitment to the Pittsburgh region and its citizens. This tradition was furthered in fall 2008, when Austrian conductor Manfred Honeck became music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. With a long and distinguished history of touring both domestically and overseas since 1900, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra continues to be critically acclaimed as one of the world's greatest orchestras. The Pittsburgh Symphony has made 40 international tours, including 20 European tours, eight trips to the Far East, and two to South America. Under the baton of Gilbert Levine, the Pittsburgh Symphony was the first American orchestra to perform at the Vatican in January 2004 for the late Pope John Paul II, as part of the Pontiff's Silver Jubilee celebration. The Symphony has a long and illustrious history in the areas of recordings and radio concerts. As early as 1936, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra broadcast coast-to-coast, receiving increased national attention in 1982 through network radio broadcasts on Public Radio International (PRI). The PRI series is produced by Classical WQED-FM 89.3 in Pittsburgh and is made possible by the musicians of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

Heinz Hall for the Performing Arts is owned and operated by Pittsburgh Symphony, Inc., a non-profit organization, and is the year-round home of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. The cornerstone of Pittsburgh's Cultural District, Heinz Hall also hosts many other events that do not feature its world-renowned orchestra, including Broadway shows, comedians, speakers and much more. For a full calendar of upcoming non-symphony events at the hall, visit heinzhall.org.

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