Hi everyone
in the Deirdre Shannon Fan club!
I would like to share my tour diary with all of you. It is quite a
long time to be away and it's nice to feel 'in touch' while we are in
constant touring mode. I hope you enjoy!
29 May 2007
On the 4th
of June David Munro and I fly to Glasgow to meet a ship called 'The
Black Prince', We sail around the Celtic coastlines until the 18th June
- namely Guernsey, Isles of Scilly, the north of France and Ireland.
This is an educational tour put together by The National Trust for
Scotland.
There will be geologists, historians, sociologists, anthropologists,
poets, musicians (I am the headline act) etc. on board. It's something I
am looking forward to - I love the sea and especially the fresh air.
Fingers crossed that the weather will remain good!
Check out their website at http://www.nts.org.uk
On disembarking the ship, we will be whisked off to Toronto in Canada to
do a few high profile concerts. The Celtic Tenors and I will be
performing on the 20th of June in the Roy Thomson Hall in
town with Loreena McKennitt. The reason being... the Ireland Park
Foundation Concert Benefit Gala Concert. Patrick Cassidy is the Irish
writer of a large commissioned work called the 'Famine Remembrance'. We
will be performing part of that piece there.
The official opening of the Ireland Park by the president of Ireland
will be taking place the next day on 21st June. We will perform for the
crowds there (open air)! That night there will be a dinner in the
Ontario Museum where we will perform yet again.
We fly back to
Ireland
the next day!
Deirdre Shannon x
27 April 2007
As we
come to the end of this North American tour we have many 'highs' to
remember as well as the 'lows'. It is strange but somehow, travel days
with multiple flights, lots of waiting around, 4 am lobby calls, sound
checks in halls with bad sound systems - all blend into the standing
ovations from three thousand people, moments of inspired music-making,
great fun and belly laughs with old friends, exciting meetings with new
friends not to mention some amazing scenery in between. Throughout all
this, the thought of that homeward bound flight comes closer and creates
wild anticipation, making the last day of the tour always a strange
bitter-sweet experience.
Then we
miss the return flight the big one we have been thinking about for so
long. Oh well! It's all part of being out on the road.
It's
been a long haul (we covered about 16,500 miles in 2 months) but I'm
glad to say we all survived it well and though we're tired we know there
is some time off just around the corner. Our last 2 concerts in
St.Catharine's, Ontario in Canada were wonderful - we were joined by the
Niagara Symphony Orchestra and their conductor, Daniel Swift, a lovely
man and a new friend!
20
Apr 2007
Well this week gone by has been the most difficult one so
far in this North American Tour. In my experience it is always about
week 7 into touring that one feels like being stationary and 'having a
normal life'!! I guess it's some psychological barrier, which always
seems to bring a temporary maudlin aspect to life! This usually only
lasts about a week and sure enough every time I come out the other side
still liking what I'm doing! Weird I know, but life on the road is weird
and that's that!!
I have been fixing up my MySpace
website along with Jenny and Don's help recently to whom I am in much
debt. The address is...
http://www.myspace.com/deirdreshannon.
The forum on my Fan Website is
healthily chatting away with 80 members strong now and constantly
growing. I really enjoy dropping by every now and again to see what the
good people have to say. Thank you Jenny and everyone else involved (Rianne,
Brian and Rich) for all your work on this. The address is at the
following...
http://www.deirdreshannon.net/
Also I must say that the new Celtic
Tenors Fan Website is really nice. I've been checking it out. It is very
easy to find subject matter. A real credit to Anja and Beate! Thanks for
including me on the page also...
http://www.celtic-tenors-fans.com/
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