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Songs never fail to move Irish tenor 



Finbar Wright joins the rest of The Irish Tenors in a sold-out concert. 

By David Ramsey 

Staff writer 





The holiday season is full of spiritual music, songs that proclaim the compassion and might of God and Jesus. 



These songs can be performed almost on a lark. Sometimes, it's difficult to find a genuine sense of spirituality 
in these spirituals. 



Finbar Wright is one of The Irish Tenors, and when he performs religious songs in his concerts, he finds himself 
transported to a different place. They play in a sold-out concert tonight in the Landmark Theatre. 



Yes, he sings the songs nearly every night, flying from city to city to perform in arenas and theaters, but he 
insists the songs still fill him with humility and longing. He never just goes through the motions, he says.



"I never fail to be moved," Wright says from his hotel room in Boston during a break in his current tour. 
"When I sing, 'How Great Thou Art,' a religious ballad that is one of those standards, it never fails to move 
me. 



"That song just encompasses that whole feeling that we are a very small piece of what is in this world, and that 
the believer and for the Christian believes God is at the very other end of that spectrum. 



"I love nature, and I'm a very keen gardener. I look at trees, and I see the beauty of nature there, and you see 
God mirrored in that. That's where I draw that inspiration and think, 'God, how great thou art.'"



Wright is a deeply religious man. He served as a Catholic priest for eight years, from 1980 to 1988, before resigning. 



"I didn't have the fire within," Wright says. He still faithfully attends his local church with his wife and two 
children. He still spends time considering the majesty of God, he says. 



The Tenors - Ronan Tynan, Anthony Kearns and Wright - are currently soaring by using a simple approach. 



They travel with a 47-piece orchestra and play well-known songs without even the barest hint of irony. 



The approach is working. "Even now, at the height of their fame, the Irish Tenors remain as earnest and unspoiled as 
ever," writes Barbara Zuck of The Columbus Dispatch.



"Which is good news, because sincerity is a good measure of their charm. ... When the Irish Tenors sing, it's about 
great music honestly sung. Hallelujah." 



"Listening to the Irish Tenors can make you so homesick for Ireland, you might forget that you've never actually been 
there," writes Brett Milano of the Boston Herald. 



Wright has taken an unlikely path to the stage. He did not begin voice training until 1984, during the middle of his 
days as a priest. As a young man, growing up only a few hundred yards from an Irish beach, he failed to take great 
interest in his music lessons. 



The youngest of eight children, Wright was expected to follow the path of his legion of siblings and learn to play the 
piano. He wasn't wildly enthusiastic. 



In fact, when mom and dad left the room, Wright departed the piano bench and jumped right out of the first-floor window. 
Freedom and wide-open spaces awaited him. 



"Nobody wants to sit at the piano and practice scales all day," he says, laughing.