Promoting Peace and Reconciliation and Excellence in Music Education and Performance

2,000 children from schools all over Galway County will take part in Galway Peace Proms which will be held in the Kingfisher Hall, NUI Galway this Saturday and Sunday, 4 and 5 February. Performances will take place at 3pm and 8pm on Saturday; Sunday performances will be at 2pm and 7pm.

Choirs will perform with the internationally acclaimed Cross Border Orchestra of Ireland (CBOI), and will be led by Ireland’s premiere conductor Maestro Gearóid Grant. Concerts will feature one of our finest tenors Emmanuel Lawler, renowned Uilleann Piper Patrick Martin, outstanding Violinist Patricia Treacy in addition to magnificent drum and piping corps. The programme is packed full of family favourites and showstoppers as well as powerful anthems from the Ulster Scots and Irish traditions.  

The CBOI was established as a peace initiative almost seventeen years ago and is made up of 120 young musicians from all over Ireland including Galway.  The orchestra gained international recognition following sell out performances at world renowned venues including Carnegie Hall, New York; Chicago Symphony Hall; Boston Symphony Hall, and major venues throughout California and Europe. In 2011 the CBOI won an international award for the “Most Outstanding Performance” at the Shanghai Expo in China. The CBOI will make their London debut at the Royal Albert Hall in October next.

The CBOI has performed for President McAleese at Áras and Uachtaráin; for Queen Elizabeth 11 at Hillsborough Castle; for many special international Ministerial gatherings at Slane Castle and Dublin Castle; for numerous national commemorations including the Battle of the Boyne; the 10th anniversary of the Belfast Agreement; the 30th anniversary of the twinning of Listowel and Downpatrick, and the 400th Anniversary of the Flight of the Earls in Rome.

The CBOI has developed “Peace Proms” over the past seventeen years as a unique and very special music education programme.  7,000 children from all over Ireland participate in “Peace Proms” annually. “Peace Proms” is supported by the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, and the Department of Education and Skills and is recognised as one of Ireland’s most important Arts Education initiatives, providing outstanding cultural opportunities for young people while promoting peace, unity and tolerance through music.

The CBOI is a registered charity and totally not-for -profit. All funds generated through ticket sales cover the cost of running this programme in which 7,000 children participate annually. Tickets for the Galway Peace Proms can be purchased from the Town Hall Theatre, Galway or from the CBOI on www.cboi.ie  

ENDS