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ProMusica singer Connie Campbell Henry revels in the glorious Killarney National Park re-creating her own “Sound of Music” moment. (Photo courtesy

ProMusica Arizona)

ProMusica takes Americana to the people of Ireland By Bridgette Redman

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ometimes the most memorable musical moments are the unexpected ones. ProMusica Arizona recently traveled as musical ambassadors to Ireland, performing three formal one-hour concerts in cathedrals across the Emerald Isle. While the 22 singers of the North Phoenix community chorale planned ahead to sing their repertoire of Americana music ranging from country-western to American pop, they also made two unexpected, impromptu performances. The first was at Jerpoint amid the ruins of Newtown. They arrived as tourists and were taken about by the man who had discovered

the 12th century town after buying the land to raise sheep and sheepdogs. They visited the supposed grave of St. Nicholas, where his earthly remains were said to have been brought back by Norman knights from the Middle East, and stood between three walls of a ruined church. They were asked to sing. “We sang the ‘Doxology’ as it was just a song everyone could sing off the top of their head without music,” says Connie Henry, a founding member of the chorale who

Kathy McGrath, from left, Jane Turner, Sheila McGrath and Marian Fogerty at St. Mary’s Cathedral Church of Ireland in Limerick, after the first ProMusica Arizona concert on June 20. Turner’s Irish third cousins secretly attended the concert and afterward came forward to meet her for the first time. (Photo courtesy ProMusica Arizona) NORTHVALLEYMAGAZINE.COM AUGUST 2019 | SEPTEMBER 2019

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