Our next talk takes place this coming Saturday 9th of December at 11am in Buswells Hotel. It’s not really a talk, as we will be screening John McCormack’s film ‘Song O’ My Heart’ which he made for Fox Pictures in 1930. There will be a brief introduction before the screening.
John was paid the princely sum of €500,000 for his starring role, underling the global fame and popularity of the Irish tenor. The film features the only recorded footage of McCormack performing on the concert stage.
The following clip is of McCormack performing the 18th century French love, Plaisir d’amour.
John McCormack and his accompanist, Teddy Schneider
Our next in-person talk will be held in Buswells Hotel, Dublin, on the 11th of November. It will start at 11am and all are welcome.
David Kelly will deliver his talk ‘John McCormack – Connections and Associations’ that will explore the recordings the Irish tenor made of material from Tin Pan Alley and their later associations with some of the biggest crooners that followed, such as Frank Sinatra and Perry Como. It promises to be a fascinating look at this popular song form.
Here’s John McCormack’s recording of Irving Berlin’s ‘All Alone’. The song would go on to be recorded by many artists.
Frank Sinatra recorded ‘All Alone’ in 1962. It is a very different interpretation of the song to that of McCormack’s.
Ruby Boland is from Clane in Co. Kildare. The 19 year old is a student at Newbridge Vocal Academy where she studies classical singing, repertoire and performance under the tutelage of Owen C. Lynch.
Recent successes for Ruby include 1st place in the Senior Soprano Solo, and 1st place in the Margaret Burke Sheridan award at Dublin Feis Ceoil 2023. She also came 1st in the U14, U16, U18 and the Junior Recital at the Dublin Feis Ceoil over the years. Recent solo engagements include a concert in the National Concert Hall’s John Field Room, performances with the Owen C. Lynch Vocal Ensemble and Orchestra, The Baldonnel Singers and the St. Cecilia Singers, Dublin.
Ruby Boland performing in the Oak Room, Mansion House, Dublin. She’s accompanied by Dearbhla Brosnan
Boyu Liu performs Mozart’s Non più andrai from The Marriage of Figaro
Boyu Liu from Heilongjiang (China) developed a love of classical music at an early age and started singing lessons when he was sixteen years old. He won many prizes at high school and at Harbin University. Boyu won the Vincent O’Brien Cup during the 2023 Feis Ceoil.
Join us on Saturday the 14th of October in Buswells Hotel, Molesworth Street. Talk commences at 11am. All are welcome.
David Clarke returns to deliver another one of his superb talks. On this occasion he’s going to look at the careers of the tenor, Joseph Schmidt, and the soprano, Margaret Burke Sheridan. Through film and recordings he will share some insights into the lives these two exceptional singers and their music legacies.
Aimee Kearney performs Schubert’s ‘Ganymed’ with accompaniment by Dearbhla Brosnan
Aimee Kearney is a light operatic soprano currently studying vocal performance on the professional mentorship scheme with Virginia Kerr and Andrew Synnott at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, Dublin. In addition to her performances as a classical soloist, she sings chamber music, opera and choral music.
Aimee has starred as ‘Dominic the prince’ in the Irish premiere of Elisabeth Maconchy’s opera The Sofa. She performed as ‘Suor Genovieffa’ in Puccini’s Suor Angelica with Berlin Opera Academy in summer 2022. Aimee looks forward to making her Lyric Opera debut as ‘Sandman’ in Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel in October 2023.
Aimee is a frequent competition winner and finalist. Aimee was awarded the Irish Prize in the international Charles Wood Song Competition final in March 2023. She was awarded the Audience Prize in the Dean and Chadlington song competition, 2023. She was the winner of the Irene Sandford Award for singers 2021 and winner of the aria prize in the same competition. She was a finalist in the Ashburnham Song Competition and the Maura Dowdall Concerto Competition this year. She is a multiple prize winner in Dublin’s prestigious Feis Ceoil, including the Plunkett Greene, The German Government Cup and the Young Cup.
Aimee has performed in many concerts and recitals including multiple solo recitals in the Charles Wood Festival of Music. Aimee performed a solo recital in the Killaloe Chamber Music Festival in June as the chosen Young Artist performer. She has been guest soloist with The Army Band, Nas na Rí Singers, The Plurabelle Singers and The Revenue Choir, and has performed in venues such as the National Concert Hall, Mansion House, Christ Church Cathedral, St. Patricks Cathedral and The RDS.
Aimee has won many prestigious bursaries and grants, including The South Dublin County Council Individual Artist Award and, most recently, The John McCormack Society Vocal Bursary.
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.
John McCormack Society 