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Irish Composer Mary McAuliffe Selected For
First MOS Commission Concert

Early in 1999, Founder/Artistic Director Michael O'Neal presented a proposal to the MOS Board of Directors that a composer be commissioned to write an original work for the chorus to perform during the Tenth Anniversary Season of The Michael O'Neal Singers.  In accepting the proposal, the Board agreed that this recognition of the organization's first decade was indeed "noteworthy". After much research and consideration, Irish composer Mary McAuliffe was approached to write and score a work for the chorus to premiere at a performance on St. Patrick's Day 2000.

Born in Cork in 1947, Mary McAuliffe studied music at University College Cork and graduated with a Bachelor in Music in 1969. She taught music to Junior and Senior schools at Catholic University School in Dublin from 1972 to 1979, and held the position of Head of Music at St. Gerard's School in Bray,  County Wicklow from 1979 to 1993. Since 1993 she has devoted most of her time to composition from her home in Greystones, County Wicklow. Ms. McAuliffe's compositions include instrumental, vocal, and choral music, opera and music for children, as well as soundtracks for audio-visual presentations and television documentaries. Her works have been performed by many of Ireland's leading soloists and choirs, including the Choir of St. Patrick's Cathedral (Dublin), Goethe Institut Choir, and the Dublin County Choir. Her music has been performed abroad in Lourdes and Rome, and in the United States.

Entitled Return to Old Ireland, the piece commissioned for MOS which is scored for chorus and instrumental chamber ensemble, blends the poetry of Walt Whitman and Y.B. Yeats with original text and music. The composer writes……

Return To Old Ireland began its life when I discovered the great Walt Whitman poem,  "Old Ireland" (first published 1865).  Being commissioned to write for The Michael O'Neal Singers, I felt that a  very  special idea was  called  for,  one that would  prove  meaningful both to singers  and audience and  have  relevance to an Irish  celebration,  but one that would  also  acknowledge the  strong  links between  our two  lands.  In my search for an idea that could form a basis for my composition.  I realized that this text was just a perfect beginning,  the imagery  of  the dying  Ireland in the  time of the  Great Famine of 1845 - 1850, one  of  the  greatest  human disasters  in  the last century, and the  rebirth in the  New World. Michael agreed that this majestic  poem was  a perfect  starting  point,  and so our  composition was  born!

The  composition is a  journey in time and  place and  so  it  is  appropriate  to  begin with  the text of one  of  America's finest poets  and  base  the final  movement  on  a line of Nobel  Laureate, Y. B.  Yeats, Ireland's  best  loved poet.

The world premiere of Return to Old Ireland will be the featured highlight of The Michael O'Neal Singers' St. Patrick's Day Celebration on Friday, March 17, 2000. Along with other invited dignitaries, composer Mary McAuliffe will be in attendance at the concert to share in the experience as her work is brought to life by the 160 voices and chamber ensemble.

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