My next performance will be in Navan on Monday, 26 September, 2016, when the I.C.A. are having an international evening, with Chinese culture as its theme. China's fascinating history and culture will be portrayed in word, music, food and song.
Invitees will include Chinese immigrants who have made Meath their home.
Our cultures have much in common, not least in song. I will be singing traditional Irish songs, in English and Irish. I have also fallen in love with their music. I'll sing some songs in Mandarin which, like many of our own traditional songs, are very beautiful, and lend themselves to be sung unaccompanied.
Their, often allegorical themes, phrasing, simple, sometimes soaring melodies resonate very much with so many of our traditional love songs. Mandarin, like our own native tongue, is a most musical language.
Over half a million people have chosen Ireland as their new home. Well done to the Meath I.C.A for showing example in warmly embracing them and their culture. It's a privilege to be asked to participate by them through the evening's coordinator and I.C.A. member, Jing Farrelly.
As a member of many United Nations' missions worldwide, I much believe in the Irish seanfhocal; Ní neart go cur le chéile: Only when united do we strengthen.
In July, Noel performed some of his Joyce one-man-show at the Joyce Summer School in Trieste, where Joyce lived from 1905 to 1915.
On 12 June, Noel O' Grady's unique interpretation of Song featured in Áras an Uachtaráin on Bloomsweek, where he sang Rufus Wainwright's composition for Shakespeare's Sonnet 29, to mark the 400th anniversary of the great bard's death, for President Michael D. Higgins, his wife Sabina and invited guests.
On Easter Monday, Noel was asked to sing in the G.P.O. His songs included the 18th century Táimse im' Chodhladh 'sná Dúistear Mé which fused the flame which was ignited in Easter of 1916. Noel led the hundreds of 1916 relatives in The Soldier's Song which was sung on Friday evening, 28th April, by the 350 or so rebels as they fearlessly fought their way towards Moore Street from the G.P.O whose burning roof was about to cave in.
Noel has performed his onemanshow: Ode to James Joyce: Portrait of a Tenor, in London, Berlin, Russia, and Trieste at the Joyce Summer School,
Noel O' Grady and John Bowman opened the Listowel Writers' Week.
Noel O' Grady's uniquely entertaining, cultural one-man -show on James Joyce is destined to entertain and bring the global brand that is James Joyce to its natural habitat, the world stage.
There is no better way to showcase what's best in Irish literature, culture and music than to promote one of the world's best known and acclaimed writers, James Joyce through song, poetry and story. Noel's singing voice is said by many Joyceans to be similar to that of James Joyce. His wife Nora, and music are what sustained him. What an amazing love story! And Noel's seamless weaving of songs, poetry and story in the songs, life, loves, works and times of James Joyce beautifully, culturally and uniquely illustrate this. When not in Joycean mode, Noel, a five-time Oireachtas na Gaeilge winner for traditional singing in Irish is exemplifying Irish culture at its best and in many forms.