MSC OPAS presents Celtic Woman: The Best of Christmas on Monday and Tuesday, Dec. 3 and 4, at 7:30pm in Rudder Auditorium at Texas A&M University. Bryan College Station is the only Texas market to present The Best of Christmas concert by Celtic Woman in the Lone Star State. Tickets are on sale now at the MSC Box Office by calling (979) 845-1234 and online at www.MSCOPAS.org. The Celtic Woman concerts are sponsored by Aggieland Credit Union.
Multi-platinum international music sensation Celtic Woman celebrates the holiday season with its seventh annual Symphony Tour. These concerts offer an unparalleled live musical experience, with Celtic Woman performing timeless holiday songs accompanied by a full symphony orchestra. The show will feature music from the all-female ensemble’s much loved holiday releases, such as the platinum-selling A Christmas Celebration and Home For Christmas. Celtic Woman promises an enchanting and festive evening filled with such favorites as Silent Night, I’ll Be Home for Christmas, and Joy To The World. Mairéad Carlin (vocals), Éabha McMahon (vocals), Tara McNeill (violin) and new member Megan Walsh (vocals) are very happy to be returning to North America, their home away from home, with this very special holiday show.
Both an accomplished recording ensemble and a world-class performing collective, Celtic Woman celebrates Ireland's rich musical and cultural heritage, while continuing its remarkable 13-year legacy of introducing some of Ireland's most talented singers and musicians onto the world stage. The group's albums and DVD releases have been consistent multi-platinum best-sellers, while their Emmy-nominated public television specials including two acclaimed Christmas specials, Home For Christmas and A Christmas Celebration, have regularly dominated the audience-supported viewer pledge drives.
Celtic Woman's last album, Homecoming – Live in Ireland, is a live CD and DVD, recorded in Dublin, Ireland, which debuted at #2 on the Billboards World Album chart and was broadcast on PBS stations nationwide in December 2017 to great acclaim. Available in digital and CD formats as well as a special Target exclusive CD featuring two bonus tracks, Homecoming – Live in Ireland features songs that span Celtic Woman's career.
Their previous release, Voices of Angels (Manhattan/Caroline) debuted at #1 on Billboard's World Albums chart in November 2016, making it the group's 12th consecutive #1. The album, which also debuted in the top slot of Billboard's Classical Albums chart, contains some of the most popular songs from Celtic Woman's live shows, along with several previously unrecorded tracks, all with stunning new orchestral arrangements recorded with the 72-piece Orchestra of Ireland. Celtic Woman's other 2016 release, Destiny, was nominated for a Grammy award in the category of Best World Music Album, marking the group's first-ever Grammy nomination.
Celtic Woman is comprised of four young Irish women— Mairéad Carlin, Éabha McMahon, gifted violinist Tara McNeill, and the group’s newest member Megan Walsh —whose performing skills bring centuries of musical and cultural tradition to life. In concert, their angelic voices and instrumental virtuosity are accompanied by a robust ensemble that includes Irish dancers, bagpipers, and a full band playing an array of traditional Celtic instruments, including bodhran, tin whistle, bouzouki, and Uilleann pipes.
Celtic Woman has sold more than 10 million CDs and DVDs, making it the only all-female act to achieve multi-platinum success in the classical crossover and world music genres during the past decade. Named Billboard's #1 World Music Artist of the Year six times, each of its 11 studio CDs have debuted at #1 on Billboard's World Album chart. Celtic Woman has also scored two Top 10 debuts on Billboard's influential album chart and five Top Five DVDs on Billboard's Top Video chart, as well as achieving platinum-level sales in nine countries.
Celtic Woman made its television debut in 2005 with a sold-out performance in Dublin, which was filmed and broadcast in the United States on PBS. Although initially intended as a one-time-only event, the concert was so warmly received by the public that the group immediately followed with a debut concert tour in the United States and the release of a chart-topping debut album. Since then, Celtic Woman's uplifting music has touched the hearts of a devoted audience in North America, while expanding its reach across the globe to six continents and 23 countries.
Celtic Woman has performed for three U.S. Presidents and appeared twice at the White House, including the 2009 National Christmas Tree Lighting. The group was seen by 23 million viewers when it performed on ABC-TV's Dancing with the Stars, and gained considerable attention for its appearances in multiple episodes of the daytime drama The Bold and the Beautiful, as well appearing on numerous other television shows in the U.S. and internationally.
After closing 2016 with their sixth annual Home for Christmas Symphony Tour, Celtic Woman returned to North America for a 90 date tour of their Voices of Angels live show in the summer of 2017. The tour culminated with a wonderful show at home in Ireland in September 2017, which was recorded for PBS, as well as a CD and DVD release, entitled Homecoming, which was released in January 2018. 2018 saw Celtic Woman return to North America to perform in more than 90 cities from March through the end of June, as part of the Homecoming Tour. Their upcoming brand new studio album, Ancient Land – their first new studio album of brand new songs since the Grammy-nominated Destiny – was recorded in the famous Real World Studios in the UK, and is set for release in the fall of 2018. To coincide with this, Celtic Woman returned home to Ireland to stage and film a spectacular live show in the grounds of the beautiful Johnstown Castle in Wexford, which was recorded for PBS, as well as a DVD release for early 2019.
Traditionally Celtic Woman close out the year with a Symphony Tour, and they took a year off in 2017 to release a 20 track holiday classic Celtic Woman, The Best of Christmas. Celebrate the joys of the holiday season with Celtic Woman and The Best of Christmas, Symphony Tour - a cherished musical tradition to share with family and friends.
