An evening of Christmas music, carols, poems and stories to celebrate the festive season at St John’s Theatre, Listowel on Tuesday 20 Dec at 8pm.

Tickets €15 available https://stjohnstheatre.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/shows/1173634348

Featuring mezzo soprano Leanne Fitzgerald, pianist Doireann O’Carroll and special guest poet Gabriel Fitzmaurice.

Leanne Fitzgerald
Leanne Fitzgerald is a recent graduate from the TUD Conservatoire where she acquired her Masters of Music in Vocal Performance.

On the opera scene, Leanne is now a member of the Irish National Opera company chorus. With INO, Leanne covered the role of The Shepherd Boy in Puccini’s Tosca in June 2022 and had her role debut as the Notary in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale in November 2022. In 2018, Leanne was featured as an upcoming artist in INO’s Young Rising Star concert. In the same year, Leanne was named Company Artist with Cork Opera House and made her house debut as Pitti-Sing in their production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado.
Leanne is a keen ensemble singer and in 2017, joined the ranks of Ireland’s flagship choral group Chamber Choir Ireland conducted by Paul Hillier. Leanne is also a core member of Irish award-winning a cappella ensemble Ardú and has performed with the group in Finland, Austria, Croatia, Italy and the UK. Throughout her career, Leanne has also performed with Opera Collective Ireland, Sestina and Resurgam and in 2019 toured North America as a soloist with Columbia Artists production of ‘Songs From Ireland’.

Doireann O’Carroll
Doireann O’Carroll has recently completed her MMus in Piano Performance at the Royal Irish Academy of Music under the tutelage of Prof. Therese Fahy and holds a BMus First Class Honours degree from MTU Cork School of Music where she studied with Eleanor Malone and Michael McHale. She has taken part in a number of exciting projects including the Iain Burnside project at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in February 2022 as well as performing in the Dublin Song Series at the Hugh Lane Gallery in May 2022. In August 2022 she was awarded the Peter Rankin piano internship at the Northern Ireland Opera Festival of Voice in Glenarm where she worked closely with Simon Lepper and Ingrid Surgenor. She performed at the final of the Festival of Voice competition accompanying singers in the Irish Song round. She also recently participated in a course for répétiteurs at the National Opera Studio in London working with Andrew Griffiths, Brenda Hurley, Liz Rowe and Susanna Stranders. In October 2022, she will be playing for the Irish Premiere of Luke Byrne’s opera Bloody Murder produced by Shirley Keane with Opera Workshop Limerick at No 2 Perry Square. Doireann has been awarded the 1848 scholarship at the Royal Irish Academy of Music for the coming year as she continues to further her career by doing the Professional Mentorship course at RIAM under Dearbhla Collins and Thérèse Fahy.

Gabriel Fitzmaurice
Deeply rooted in the literary tradition of North Kerry, Gabriel Fitzmaurice is a poet, broadcaster, writer, translator, singer and raconteur. He was born in 1952, in the village of Moyvane, Co Kerry where he still lives. For more than three decades, he taught and later served as principal at his local national school but is now happily retired. He has been called “poetry’s answer to John B Keane” (Books Ireland) and his poems have been described as “comparable to Burns for their insight and lyricism” (The Irish Times ).

He is the author of more than forty books, including collections of poetry in English and Irish as well as several collections of verse for children. He has translated extensively from Irish and has edited a number of anthologies of poetry in both English and Irish. In addition, he has published volumes of essays and collections of songs and ballads. He is a familiar voice on Kerry Radio where he hosts his own show. He is a former chair and literary advisor of Listowel Writers’ Week and is currently a committee member of Éigse Michael Hartnett. He is an award winner of the Gerard Manley Hopkins Centenary Poetry Competition. He works as a translator of essays and collections of songs/ballads from the original Irish and has twice represented Ireland at the European Festival of Poetry in Louvain, Belgium.

A musician and singer, he has played and sung on a number of albums of Irish traditional music. He frequently broadcasts on Irish radio and television and local radio stations on education and the arts.