The lead vocalist of Celtic Thunder, Emmet Cahill, performs a benefit concert for benefit St. Michael’s Catholic Church. (photo courtesy Emmet Cahill)
Irish tenor Emmet Cahill has achieved international success as a solo artist and as the principal singer of vocal quintet Celtic Thunder. Last year, he made his solo debut at Carnegie Hall after his 2017 album “Emmet Cahill’s Ireland” debuted at #1 on the Billboard World Music Charts.
“Over my years touring in America and with Celtic Thunder, I’ve gravitated back towards working in the church and the community,” says Cahill. “So it’s all kind of come full circle.”
This month, Cahill is singing at churches across America, performing Christmas music and classic Irish songs such as “Danny Boy” and "An Irish Lullaby," and taking audience requests. Stops include a performance on Thursday at St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church in Glen Allen. Doors open at 7 p.m., and the concert benefits the church, with proceeds going to acquisition of a new piano.
Richmond Magazine: How are you feeling about the Christmas in Ireland tour? Are you excited to be performing Christmas songs?
Emmet Cahill: Yeah, I grew up singing in church, so Christmas was obviously kind of a pivotal time for me in the church calendar for music. All of this tour is in churches, so we’re working with lots of choirs, and we get to sing all this beautiful music. You only get to sing it for one month a year, so I’m always excited about it.
RM: You have said that you didn’t expect your career to turn out this way. Are you happy with how things have turned out?
EC: I work very hard, and I’ve been given a lot of opportunities. Being Irish in America and singing these songs and seeing how much they mean to people, they just want to hear these stories again and again. A lot of the songs I sing represent family and religion and culture and all those things. So at my shows I see audiences from grandkids up to grandparents, these songs have passed down from one family generation to the next. When I sing “An Irish Lullaby,” that I remember my grandmother sung to me, people come up to me and say “I remember my father singing that to me,” so you get to see how personal this music is to people. In many ways, it’s a conduit for people to connect to memories, family, you know, it’s so much bigger than the music itself. In that respect, I think it’s a hugely satisfying thing. That’s what you want to feel from music. It needs to move you, it needs to take you somewhere.
RM: What kind of show can we expect?
EC: You know, it’s a family show. We have little kids, we have grandparents, and we love to make everyone feel welcome and for everyone to have a good time. Christmas is one of those things where you go to stuff with your family, so that’s the approach we like to take, and that’s our audience. That always makes it very enjoyable to see everyone getting something from it, young and old. So that’s what we’re going to do.
