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Anúna is legitimate folklore that weaves religious and secular threads into an enchanting sonic tapestry…” Billboard

On Thursday 16th March 8pm, the National Concert Hall will host Anúna in a performance which celebrates this internationally renowned vocal ensemble’s 30th anniversary season.

The performance will feature a special programme of songs that span the entire life of Anúna arranged and written by Michael McGlynn including Dúlamán, the beautiful Midnight and August, both settings of the Irish poet Francis Ledwidge, celebrating his centenary year.

An Anúna concert is a unique experience combining atmospheric costumes and movement in a candle-lit setting, creating a truly mythical and magical experience. As part of their 30th anniversary Anúna will travel to Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, China and Iceland. In February they visit Japan to take part in one of the most exciting projects the group have ever embarked on, performing The Hawks Princess with a Noh Theatre company in Tokyo’s Orchard Hall. The Hawk Princess is based on W. B. Yeats’ influential play At the Hawk’s Well, with a score created by Michael McGlynn who will also co-direct the production with Japanese national treasure Gensho Umewaka, the legendary Noh actor.

Choral music is not an indigenous form to Ireland and Anúna have created a uniquely Irish reinvention of the form that is deeply rooted in this country’s own song tradition, sean nós. Anúna’s education and outreach programme has resulted in a high demand for workshops all over the world and culminates in their International Summer School which takes place annually in June in Dublin. The 2016 School was attended by delegates from fifteen countries.

Anúna have appeared at some of the finest music venues in the world including the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Muziekgebouw Eindhoven, De Doelen in Rotterdam, the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, Sumida Hall and Hyogo Performing Arts Centre in Japan, Town Hall New York, Symphony Hall in Minneapolis and for the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

Throughout their career they have been signed to some of the world’s major record labels including Decca, Universal Classics, Polygram and Philips. Anúna have released seventeen albums, been nominated for a Classical Brit Award, won a National Entertainment Award for Classical Music, appeared on three Grammy Award-winning albums and have placed on the UK Classical and US Billboard Charts regularly.

The name Anúna is derived from the Irish language term “An Uaithne”, a collective description for the three ancient forms of Irish music - Goltraí (song of lament), Geantraí (song of joy) and Suantraí (the lullaby). An Uaithne and subsequently ANÚNA, is a uniquely beautiful instrument. The purity and natural techniques that are employed by the singers explore the stories of ordinary people, poets, saints and scholars. Within these songs are universal truths told through the landscape, the philosophy and the mythology of Ireland and beyond.

Anúna at the National Concert Hall
Thursday 16 March 2017, 8pm
Tickets: €35, €30, €25 (Choir Balcony €20)
National Concert Hall Box Office Tel: 01 417 00 00 or www.nch.ie