Anúna have succeeded in dispelling any pre-conceived ideas about Irish music and choral music performance. An Anúna concert is a true “show”, a combination of movement, elegant costume, candles and ethereal and haunting music sung in a unique way. This has gained the choir a justified reputation for the natural quality of the singers’ voices. Together with relaxed introductions by the director and other singers, Anúna’s style of presentation allows anyone of any musical persuasion to appreciate their performance despite the esoteric nature of their material.

The group have a very diverse international audience, developed through seventeen years of touring and slip easily between Classical music and Irish/World music genres. Their audience can be as diverse as the musicians that they have collaborated and worked with.

The choir have appeared twice at the Fez World Sacred Music Festival in Morocco in 1998 and 2002, gave the first ever Irish Prom at the BBC Proms in the Royal Albert Hall in London in 1999 and have toured twenty countries since 1993. They accompanied the President of Ireland Mary McAleese to Chile and Argentina in 2004. In January 2007 Anúna recorded a series of live performances in Cleveland which have been broadcast extensively on PBS across the USA. The group undertook a two month tour of the USA in Autumn 2007. In 2008 Anúna gave their début performance at the renowned Concertgebouw Hall in Amsterdam. In July of 2009, Anúna combined with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland for a major concert of Michael McGlynn's compositions in Dublin's National Concert Hall.

They became closely associated with the Riverdance phenomenon from 1994 until 1996, giving the first performance of the piece at the Eurovision Song Contest 1994. Anúna sang the opening choral section entitled "Cloudsong". They feature extensively on the Grammy Award Winning album of the show, and have been featured artists on two other Grammy Award winning albums with the Chieftains in collaborations with Sting and Elvis Costello. The choir won an Irish National Entertainment Award for Classical music in 1994 for their album Invocation, and were nominated for a Classical Brit Award in 2000 for Deep Dead Blue. The group have recorded ten albums and been signed to many major record labels including Decca, Universal Classics, Polygram, Philips and Koch International.

The CD Anúna: Celtic Origins became the number one CD on the US World Music Charts in August 2007 according to Nielsen Soundscan and is also an award-winning PBS show and DVD. November 2008 saw the release in the USA of Christmas Memories, a CD and DVD also broadcast nationally in November and December. It achieved in excess of 80% carriage over the Christmas period on the PBS network. Both specials continue to be broadcast across the USA. The CD of Christmas Memories entered the Billboard World Music Charts at number six on first week of release and spent ten weeks in the top twenty.

2009 & 2010 includes performances and tours of Japan, Germany, Norway, the Netherlands and Sweden. Currently on release is Invocations of Ireland, Michael McGlynn's self-made film. This is due for broadcast extensively in Australia/New Zealand throughout 2010 on the Ovation Channel with the DVD to be released on Australia's DV1 and Columbia Music Entertainment in Japan. The group's latest album Sanctus is a spiritual album which includes Miserere mei Deus by Allegri.

www.anuna.ie

Michael McGlynn is founder and director of the world-renowned choral group Anúna which he created in 1987. His harmonic language combines elements of the traditional heritage of his homeland and the modality and energy of medieval music with a particular contemporary musical language.

Among his best-know music is "Dúlamán", which is a staple of the US choral repertoire. Michael's music has been commissioned recorded and performed by such renowned vocal ensembles as Rajaton, The Dale Warland Singers, The BBC Singers, The National Youth Choir of Great Britain, The Phoenix Chorale formerly the Phoenix Bach Choir], Conspirare and Chanticleer both Grammy Award-Winning ensembles. Choral groups all over the world continue to commission and perform his uniquely-flavoured vocal compositions.

He is a vocal and choral clinician, working recently in the University of Miami & Florida Atlantic University (U.S.A.), Sumida Hall (Japan) and Festival 500 in Newfoundland (Canada). In February of 2010 Michael acted as a vocal coach on the Finnish version of X Factor, also acting as an on-screen adjudicator. Michael is also an accomplished film-maker. His first full-length film Invocations of Ireland, which he filmed and edited himself, has been release on DVD in Japan on Columbia, and will be released and broadcast in Australia and New Zealand later in 2010.