We had a wonderful turnout at the Mansion House, Dublin for our annual Bursary Awards Concert. Held in the Oak Room, we were delighted to hear the recipients, Aimee Kearney, Ruby Boland and Boyu Liu perform a selection of songs from their popular and classical repertoire. A filmed performance by each of the singers will be published over the coming weeks. The singers were accompanied by Dearbhla Brosnan, the well known and highly regarded pianist.
Boyu Liu, Ruth Boland, Aimee Kearney and Patrick Hyland
We had a special guest on the night, a first for the John McCormack Society. Patrick Hyland, the multi-award winning tenor has performed in a wide variety of operatic roles and has given concert recitals extensively at home and abroad. Patrick delivered a tour de force, performing some of McCormack’s signature songs. He also delivered a thrilling ‘Ah, mes amis’ from Donizetti’s ‘La fille de régiment’, tackling the 9 high Cs with great aplomb.
We had a wonderful turnout for Keith Kurtzer’s talk, with people traveling from Cork and Tipperary to be with us at Buswell’s Hotel. Keith delivered a tour de force presentation which contained a lot of unseen and unpublished material. For those who were unable to attend Keith very kindly provided us with a copy of his presentation. Although we don’t have Keith’s guiding narrative we hope it will provide Society members and McCormack enthusiasts with an enjoyable trip down memory lane.
Peter Dwan, Tish Tinney (John McCormack’s granddaughter), Jeremy Meehan, Keith Kurtzer, Gordon Ledbetter and Elizabeth O’BrienKeith Kurtzer presented with a John McCormack Commemorative Silver Coin by Elizabeth O’Brien
‘Jack Keveny’s John McCormack – Anecdotes of a Concert Monarch’ by Keith Kurtzer
The John McCormack Society is delighted to welcome Keith Kurtzer of New York who will deliver a talk on the Irish tenor using the unique collection of material assembled by fellow American, Jack Keveny.
Max de Schauensee called John McCormack the Caruso of the concert stage and in his refulgent prime John Count McCormack was billed as the Monarch of the concert stage. I have known Jack Keveny for over 40 years, and because of him, came to know the major collectors and board members of the New York John McCormack Society. My program presents a synoptic account of John McCormack the man, the singer, the educator, and minister of beauty and encouragement, via primary source audio documents, pictures, and vintage ephemera – most of which have been unavailable or unpublished since their inception of a century or more ago. My aim is the preservation and restoration of these materials in order to propagate interest in this man for the ages.
Keith Kurtzer
Keith Kurtzer
Keith Kurtzer is a retired high school English teacher, for whom John McCormack has been a life-long influence and passion. He recently retired after a career of 37 years as a teacher, mentor, and curriculum developer. He is a native New Yorker, but for the past 36 years has called New Jersey home. Keith is a long-time board member of the New York Vocal Record Collectors Society (VRCS), a sister organization of London’s Record Collector. Like the Record Collector, the VRCS issues an annual CD of rarities replete with a comprehensive booklet of details and artist biographies. In February of 2019, he presented John McCormack in the twenty-first Century, a personal retrospective on the influence of the immortal tenor, for the VRCS. In addition to collecting and restoring an array of vocal recordings and operas, Keith is a baritone, with a penchant for vocal technique, and has studied with Gino Bechi, Jerome Hines, Gina Cigna, and Harry Dworchak, his signature role being Tevye in Jerry Bock’s Fiddler on the Roof. Keith and his wife Karen live in New Jersey with TJ, their seventeen-year-old cat. They enjoy summers at the beach, pickleball, long walks, and being grandparents to Summer Grace, their first grandchild.
The talk will take place at 11am on Saturday 9 September 2023 in Buswells Hotel, Dublin. There will be plenty of terrific insights into the life of McCormack, and of course, a selection of wonderful recordings.
You can view and download the programme selection below.
The tenor Ross Scanlon and pianist David O’Shea will perform a selection of John McCormack’s most popular songs in the John Field Room at the National Concert Hall, Dublin, in August. It promises to be a lovely afternoon of music.
Join us on the 15th of April at 11am in Buswells Hotel, Molesworth Street, Dublin 2.
David Clarke
David Clarke will take us on a journey from 1890 to 1918 when opera moved away from the bel-canto style of singing and acting to verismo. Realism in opera was sought with composers creating operas that connected to the lives of ordinary people. The style of singing and acting were transformed. Music by Mascagni, Leoncavallo, Catalani, Charpontier, Massenet, Puccini, Giordano, Cilea, and a wide range of singers will feature primarily through a superb selection of film performances.
Join us for what should be an entertaining and enjoyable talk on the making of ‘The People’s Tenor’, and what inspired it, and hear a selection of favourite recordings chosen by the director.
John McCormack Society 