Арду

Ardú are a six-piece professional vocal band from Ireland. They are based in Dublin and specialise in contemporary a cappella singing, performing original arrangements of well-known songs without instruments, using only their voices. Ardú is an internationally recognised ensemble: they represented Ireland in festivals across Europe, including Tampere Vocal in Finland, the Edinburgh Fringe festival, vokal.total і Vocal Mania in Austria, as well as festivals in London, Italy and Slovenia. Their touring efforts are regularly supported by Culture Ireland, most recently having headlined the Vocal Champs, Solala і Blacksheep Festivals in Germany, the Stemvork Festival in Belgium and LADO na Mažurancu Festival in Croatia. The support also extends to their international concert series: ‘Ireland Meets Croatia’ in 2024, and ‘Songs from Ireland – Holiday Edition’ in Manchester, UK in 2025. However, Ardú are busiest at home, where they regularly perform at high-profile Irish festivals such as Fuddle Fest (2026), Your Roots Are Showing (2026), Ennis Choral Feestival (2026), Cashel Arts Festival (2025), YouBloom (2024), Boyle Arts Festival (2023), Міжнародний хоровий фестиваль міста Деррі (2020), MusicTown Festival (2020), K Fest (2019) and the Коркський міжнародний хоровий фестиваль (2018), and in 2019 they performed with the famous American a cappella group Straight No Chaser at the National Concert Hall in Dublin. They are no strangers to TV and radio, and were most recently featured on The Voice UK, where they earned a place on team will.i.am. They also performed on the Ray Darcy Show (RTÉ 1), Classical Connections (BBC Radio Ulster), Marty in The Morning (RTÉ Lyric FM) and the BBC Proms (2021) and have competed in the a cappella reality competition Sing: Ultimate A Cappella on Sky One in 2017. Ardú has released three studio albums to date, ‘Gravity’ (2018), ‘LIVE’ (2020) and ‘Songs from Here’ (2022). Their most recent album has been nominated for a Contemporary A Cappella Recording Award and awarded runner-up in the category of ‘Best European Album’, while their music video for their single ‘I Wouldn’t Be’ was nominated for an A Cappella Video Award in the ‘Best Video by a Professional Group’ category. The ensemble has also won numerous awards, including the category National Vocal Ensemble & Popular Music біля Коркський міжнародний хоровий фестиваль in 2017, Lyric FM’s Choirs for Christmas in 2018, several awards at the Міжнародний хоровий фестиваль міста Деррі in 2015, as well as the audience awards at international festivals Solala (2026), Vocal Champs (2026) and vokal.total (2019). As ambassadors of the a cappella genre in Ireland, in 2017 Ardú founded, and subsequently hosted three editions of the Irish International A Cappella Festival, which featured numerous international a cappella acts. Alongside performing, competing and promoting the genre of a cappella, Ardú also work on developing educational partnerships and programmes in Ireland and regularly hold vocal workshops with various ensembles. In the past, they have partnered with the Dundalk Institute of Technology, St Kevin’s School in Crumlin, Music Generation і Співай Ірландію. Their educational programme is popular in schools across Ireland and reaches young singers of all ages, backgrounds and capabilities. Ciarán Kelly founded the group in 2014 as its artistic director at the time, and still writes original arrangements specifically tailored for the group’s six voices. As the ensemble evolves and singers change throughout the years, the current lineup has been active since 2023. If you want to know more, or wish to hear their music, you can find more information below.