Louth’s Cross Border Orchestra woo Carnegie Hall audience on St Patrick’s Day

The Dundalk-based orchestra performed to a packed audience which included Tánaiste Micheál Martin and the Consul General of Ireland Helena Nolan.

The concert by over 130 talented young musicians aged  from 14 to 24, from all over Ireland and Northern Ireland, marked both the orchestra’s own 25th anniversary celebrations which had been delayed due to the pandemic and the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement.

The Carnegie Hall performance was a fantastic showcase of the breath of talent produced in Ireland, with a programme that brought together the culture of communities on both sides of the sectarian divide in Northern Ireland.

Enitled ‘Ancora’, the performance was a blend of symphonic Celtic music rooted in both the Irish and Ulster Scots tradition

.Led by the internationally acclaimed conductor Maestro Greg Beardsell, the orchestra was joined by all-Ireland champion Uilleann Piper Conal Duffy; award-winning vocalist and song writer Lauren Murphy; world champion Highland Piper Grahame Harris and the Pipe Corps from Xavarian High School, Brooklyn; Ulster Scots dancers from the Michelle Johnston School of Highland Dance in Belfast; Irish dancers from Rockland county, New York, and multi-award winning 100-strong Fairfield County Children’s Choir from Connecticut.

Whilst in New York the CBOI had a full programme of events, performing a Flashmob at Grand Central Station, and performing on top of New York’s famous cultural landmark the Rockefeller Centre.