The spirit of last night’s GLAS Christmas concert was perfectly captured in the happy face of ex-UN staffer, Margaret Strang (below left) when she was surprised during Eoghan O’Sullivan’s set with a birthday cake to mark her 94th birthday. Eoghan led a rousing chorus of Happy Birthday which followed nicely on his efforts to encourage…
‘Pity the nation’ – Support Gaza this Christmas The GLAS Christmas concert in the old town of Geneva is always a musical treat. Last year it was headlined by The Emigrants, an amazingly talented, multi-national ensemble playing a lively brand of traditional Irish music. Due to popular demand, we are bringing them back this December.…
The GLAS Christmas Concert was very special this year. It was a story of two halves. One played by the UN Choir, centred on yuletide carols, while The Emigrants gave us music from the rich repertoire of the Irish tradition. And the result was at least CHF 6,500 collected on the night for the displaced…
Many friends of GLAS will recall the electrifying performance of Rafeef Ziadeh, the Palestinian poet, who we hosted in June 2016. At her suggestion we started to support the Gaza School of Music, founded in 2012 as a branch of the Edward Said Conservatory of Music to offer the first ever long-term music education programme…
Jigs, reels and songs aplenty rang out in the old town of Geneva yesterday as GLAS welcomed a full house inside the hallowed walls of the Lutheran Evangelical Church on the Place Bourg de Four. The traditional Irish music trio Tulsk electrified the audience from the start. The interplay between Peter Molloy on flute, Sean…
We are delighted to host this showcase of talent from the Emerald Isle featuring five of the country’s most talented singers and musicians. Pauline Scanlon comes from an Irish-speaking tradition on the Dingle Peninsula and her voice has a haunting beauty. Niamh Regan is a singer-songwriter from Galway who combines Irish tradiiton with flavours of Americana,…
The first GLAS event of the year was billed as a spring concert and there was definitely a spring in the step of Eoghan O’Sullivan as he took to the stage to deliver a buoyant, uplifting set of songs ‘From the Bright Side’ that earned him a standing ovation from a capacity attendance. The singer-songwriter…
For our spring concert this year, we’re inviting you to spend an evening in the company of locally based singer and songwriter Eoghan O’Sullivan. A troubadour at heart, Eoghan has performed throughout Europe and beyond. He left his native Ireland for Switzerland in 2004 and has lived here ever since (aside from a few years…
It has been too long since we had a live, in-person event. So, we have decided to get the GLAS ball rolling again with a Christmas concert featuring the remarkable acapella vocal trio, White Raven, on Friday, December 16 in the beautiful setting of Geneva’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in the heart of the old town…
It has been a while since we offered you a musical evening and it is even further back in the pre-COVID past since that magical evening we enjoyed in the company of John Spillane in the Lutheran Evangelical Church here in Geneva. Generous sponsorship has made it possible to invite all GLAS members to join…
There are not many times in a professional singer’s life when she spontaneously yields the stage to a member of the audience. It happened Friday night when Lisa Lambe called young Molly O’Sullivan up on to the stage to sing the chorus of her song Hazelwood with the support of John McLaughlin on guitar and…
For this year’s GLAS Christmas Concert, we are delighted to host Lisa Lambe, one of Ireland’s most sought-after performers. Lisa regularly works with Ireland’s national RTÉ Concert Orchestra. For several years she toured the world as one of the lead singers with “Celtic Woman”, playing such venues as Carnegie Hall and Radio City, New York.…
Early on during his gig in Geneva last night, Luka Bloom said he was more inclined towards sad songs and somewhat suspicious of happy ones. That may be true, but the songs he sang for us filled the room with warmth and joy, albeit with a few bittersweet moments along the way. From the wry…
“I used to worry a lot about songs, my career. I’ve stopped that now. I believe genuinely if I try to be true to myself and write my songs with a good heart, and sing them with a good heart, then I’ll be taken care of.” It is ten years since GLAS had the pleasure…
Irish songwriters must be forming a disorderly queue to have Lisa Lambe record their offerings. Last night in Geneva she sang a song Paul Brady left unrecorded for thirty years before he offered it to her. She had to find one of those funny old cassette player things to listen to his rough cut of…
GLAS is honoured to host “Songs from Ireland: Old and New 2019” featuring seven outstanding singers and musicians from Ireland whose work is inspired by the Celtic tradition. The show blends the traditional and the contemporary in an evocative and captivating performance. The show will take you on a musical journey featuring the expressive play…
“There was a touch of magic here tonight.” That’s how one smiling punter summed up our evening last night with the great John Spillane in the simple setting of the Lutheran Evangelical Church in the heart of Geneva’s old town. The acoustics were great and you could savour every chord of his beautiful guitar playing,…
For more than 35 years, the songs of John Spillane have provided a musical background to life in Ireland. They have been performed by such luminaries as Christy Moore, Sharon Shannon, Sean Keane and Mary Black, but it is John himself who brings these special songs to life in his memorable and moving live performances.…
GLAS suppporters got a real treat last night as Sharon Shannon and her band made their Geneva debut to a packed house at the Centre des Arts, on Ecolint’s La Grande Boissière campus. She surrounds herself with great musicians: Jim Murray (acoustic guitar), Sean Regan (fiddle, percussion and beatbox) and Jack Maher (electric guitar and…
Sharon Shannon has music at her fingertips….literally! The accordionist from Ireland has achieved legendary status throughout the world and has made the much-maligned accordion ‘cool’ in her home country. She is renowned for her collaborations, not just in Irish traditional music, but through all musical genres, hip-hop, cajun, country, classical and rap. The Geneva Literary…
Luka Bloom’s agent in Switzerland told me that in all the Swiss German towns Luka performed in before coming to Geneva last Saturday his songs were met with polite applause but an uncomprehending silence greeted his stories about the songs. Saturday night’s sold-out show for GLAS, packed with Irish and other anglophone expats, must have…
“A fabulous songwriter, deeply rooted in his homeland and always looking for more.” Irish folk legend, Luka Bloom is back in Geneva on Saturday, April 1. It’s four years since GLAS brought him to Geneva for the first time and he is a crowd favourite wherever he goes around the world, thanks to the quality…
New Road turned the GLAS Aula venue into a steamy swamp of deliriously joyful music on Saturday night. Not since the heyday of the Bothy Band and Planxty have I been so mesmerised by a group of Irish musicians revelling in the tradition but mixing it up with something else. That something else was partly…
“…a musical experience full of passion and exhilaration, depth and beauty.” For Christmas this year GLAS gives you the gift of music from five outstanding musicians. The legendary interpreter of Celtic song, Cathy Jordan (pictured right), will accompany the New Road ensemble: a unique blend of the plaintive Irish uilleann pipes, fiddle, harmonica, whistles, 5-string…
In the year of the hunger strikes in 1981, I spent a month travelling through Palestine and Israel. I made my way to the Gaza Strip though it was under lock down and no journalists were allowed to enter. I joined several people in the back of a spacious Arab taxi leaving from East Jerusalem.…
What a night we had. John Spillane had the audience in the palm of his hand as he brought us on a guided tour of Cork, Ireland and the universe. He sang all his hits, including catchy numbers like John, Don’t Go To Ballincollig and a new song about the busking festival in Clonmel and…
You will recall that last Christmas we had to cancel The Voice Squad concert, just two days before the event, due to an unfortunate injury suffered by one of the group. The good news is that they are definitely coming this Saturday, December 5. And to make it an even more memorable evening, we are…
It’s two years since GLAS brought Luka Bloom to Geneva for the first time. We had an amazing reaction from the audience that night and we promised to bring him back. He’s on tour again and Geneva is on the list for Saturday, October 11. Here’s a sample of some emails we received after his…
Last minute problems with GLAS events have taught me to hide my despair at cruel twists of fate and to bite my tongue when dealing with a concierge who resembles an ex-gang member who has become an avid convert to clean living and a rules-based lifestyle. He can make life and death decisions about our…
GLAS is particularly pleased to be bringing to Geneva an ensemble of musicians featuring the legendary piper Mickey Dunne, the last of several generations of the Dunne family who have toured Ireland for over a century bringing the beautiful soulful sound of the uileann pipes into every corner of the land. He is held in…