One of my favorite things about this time of year is being able to hear Christmas music performed live. I was, therefore, absolutely thrilled to be at Abravanel Hall last night for a Christmas concert with Celtic Woman and the Utah Symphony! Celtic Woman is an Irish musical ensemble currently composed of violinist Tara McNeill and vocalists Megan Walsh, Muirgen O'Mahony, and Hannah Traynor. Their crystal clear soprano voices sounded amazing with the acoustics in Abravanel Hall and their arrangements of both classic and contemporary Christmas songs were incredibly lush with the Utah Symphony backing them. They performed as a group and individually and their set included, "Ding Dong Merrily On High," "Angels We Have Heard On High," "Do You Hear What I Hear," "O Come, O Come Emmanuel," "Deck the Halls," "The Toys' Waltz," "White Christmas," "Amid the Falling Snow," "I Saw Three Ships," "Carol of the Bells," "The Christmas Song," "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear," "Danny Boy," "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," and "Sleigh Ride." McNeill performed a beautiful instrumental version of "What Child Is This" and the group was joined by a piper (hearing bagpipes gets me every time) for "Amazing Grace" and "We Three Kings." I always hope that I will hear "O Holy Night" (my favorite Christmas song) performed live at least once during the holiday season and this year I have been lucky enough to hear it twice because Celtic Woman sang a lovely version (I especially loved the harp used in this arrangement). Even though I got to hear my favorite song, my favorite performance was "Wexford Carol" because it was incredibly ethereal and their voices blended together so beautifully! They ended the concert, appropriately, with a rousing rendition of "Auld Lang Syne" which featured the pipes once again. I am sure that this concert will be a highlight of the season for me because it was simply glorious and I'm so glad that I got to go!
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