www.michaellondra.com

Wexford native Michael Londra is a star on the rise across the USA, his show ‘Beyond Celtic’ is currently reaching a mass of households on US TV, Michael is also due to commence his 50 date tour which sees him travel from West to East across the US. beginning with a three week residency in downtown San Francisco.

According to Michael, “The show features Trad legends Frankie Gavin and De Dannan, Sephira, an amazing girl group from Monaghan, Owen Barrington, World Champion Irish Dancer and a 21 piece orchestra and choir.”

The special was coproduced by Michael’s production company, CELT Productions and Mindfox Productions. Michael performs classical crossover, folk and his own original material. Commenting on the tour Michael said, “The tour based on the show begins in 8 weeks time with 50 dates booked nationally in venues of 700 to 3000 seats beginning with a 3 week residency in downtown San Francisco in December and finishing in May 2012, with Michael hosting a trip to Ireland as part of a package for Colette Vacations.

Commenting on the upcoming tour Michael said, “I really wanted to get American tourists back to Wexford so when I was approached to do this, I said I would only be involved if I got to design the itinerary. We will spend 2 nights in Wexford and I plan on a concert in town when I am there.”

Michael has also just released the CD and DVD of ‘Beyond Celtic’ which is available on Amazon. The new studio album was released in time to take advantage of the attention to the concert special nationally; ‘The Road Not Taken’ features studio versions of a lot of the songs from the PBS show and some previously unreleased tracks.

The dvd features a new film of Michael’s last trip to Haiti highlighting his continued involvement with the US. branch of the Irish charity Concern Worldwide. It also features behind the scenes footage including a chat with Larry Hagman. Michael commented recently “Do you know how random it is to go to your dressing room after the show to find Frankie Gavin in there having the chat and drinking champagne with J.R. Ewing? It was just surreal.”

Londra has not forgotten where he comes from and indeed has partnered with visitwexford.ie to let the American public know what a great place the Sunny South East is to visit. At every date on his upcoming tour Visit Wexford brochures will be distributed with his merchandise. “I talk about Wexford during most of my show anyway so I thought if the public brought home a brochure they would perhaps think about us for a vacation.”

“I can’t think of a better place to come for a holiday. I come home all the time but I may just be a little biased. This is the first Opera Festival I will miss in many years but I cannot complain about being this busy. I will however try to get another few days at home before December. I miss my family and friends too much and can’t go too long without a pint in Simon Lamberts.”

For more information go to www.michaellondra.com or www.beyondceltic.com or to keep up with his tour updates
follow Michael on Twitter @michaellondra