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Thursday, March 14\nFather Eoin Murphy, back on a visit from Ireland, does a benefit concert once again to support the Clinton County Arts Council with all new material.
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Get in the spirit of St. Patrick’s Day by enjoying an evening of entertainment featuring Fr. Eoin Murphy, back from Ireland on a return visit to St Johns. He has graciously agreed to spend an evening one more time, sharing his beautiful voice and amusing anecdotes with a bit of Irish blarney thrown in for good measure. The Mint City Singers will be show-casing their talents with a number of selections to round out the program.\nIreland in Song and Story Anew will be held 7:00 – 9:00 PM on Thursday, March 14 at the VFW Hall Post 4113, 4297 N. US Highway 27, St. Johns, MI 48879. Admission is $10\/adult, $5\/children $25\/family. Doors open at 6:30pm.
\nFr. Eoin grew up in County Cork, Ireland, and after studies at University College in Dublin and Holy Cross College, he was ordained a priest for the archdiocese of Dublin. He later completed graduate studies at Loyola University in Chicago and the University of Toronto.
\nHowever he also had talents and a strong interest in music, which led him to study piano for 8 years and sing as a member of various choirs as a boy soprano and a youth. He went on to study Gregorian Chant and became the cantor for the choir. He also sang in the tenor line of a polyphonic choir for 7 years.
\nHe studied voice at the Dublin College of Music and at the Toronto Conservatory with a former Italian tenor of the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Following that, he sang with a semi-professional baroque choir in Toronto and received awards at the Dublin National Music Festival and the Chicago Music Festival for his baritone voice.
\nFor a number of years Father Eoin was the soloist with a major girls’ choir of 80 voices that toured the United States in 1776 as a gift from the Irish government for the Bi-Centennial celebrations in the US. He recorded 2 albums with this choir and appeared on television in the US, Japan and Ireland.
\nIn 1993 he came back to the US to fulfill a wish born in 1970 to work as a pastor here. He ended up spending 19 years here, with 11 of them being in St. Johns at St. Joseph Catholic Church. In June 2012 he returned to Ireland, but enjoys coming back to the states for a visit.
\nThe proceeds from this program will be shared by the Clinton Northern Railway historic railcar restoration project and the Mint City Singers. This is the second year in a row that Fr. Eoin has donated his talents to benefit the CCAC Railroad Musuem. Both organizations, which are branches of the Clinton County Arts Council, appreciate your support as they continue to add to the arts and culture in this area.
\nThe Clinton County Arts Council has gratefully received grants from the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs and the National Endowment for the Arts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"