If you love great music and want to support an incredibly worthwhile charity - then get yourself to Pond Park Primary School in Lisburn on Friday 22nd September 2017 at 7.30pm.

Every eight hours, someone in the UK is permanently paralysed.

Back Up is a national charity for everyone affected by spinal cord injury, providing services that transform lives and rebuild confidence and independence.

The charity offers wheelchair skills training, mentoring and rehabilitative activity courses that are all run by people affected by spinal cord injury themselves.

Help raise funds for Back Up at the charity concert on the Friday 22nd September 2017.

Contact Angela on 07795370848 for tickets and information.

If you are unable to come to the event but wish to make a donation, donations can be made through the fundraising site at www.justgiving.com/charityconcertforbackup

Just some of the fabulous musicians include;

 

Wilson Shields is a Musical Director and Pianist from Newtownards who is widely recognised for his talents and accomplishments.
Wilson conducted the Northern Irish premieres of "Mack and Mabel", "Camelot", "Witches of Eastwick", "Copacabana" , "Chess", "West Side Story" (amateur premiere), "Legally Blonde", "White Christmas", "Avenue Q" and "Ghost".
Wilson has completed 15 seasons as musical director of the Grand Opera House pantomime, and has also been musical director of the GOH Summer Youth Project for the past 5 years. Future projects this year include "West Side Story", "42nd Street", "Sound of Music", "Oklahoma", "Les Miserables", "Sister Act" and "Seusical".
Wilson works as musical director for Karl McGuckin, both in the concert platform and in the recording studio. He will again collaborate this Christmas with Karl for his series of "Candlelight Christmas" concerts.
 
Karl McGuckin will be performing at the opening of the concert, accompanied by the incredible Wilson Shields.
Karl began his training in classical music under the tutelage of Dr Veronica Dunne in The Royal Irish Academy of Music, where he won both an entrance scholarship and the Baritone Prize in the Samsung Feis Ceol.
Since then Karl has sung with a number of critically acclaimed opera companies across the British Isles but now finds himself more regularly on the musical theatre stage. Having become a regular feature in the musical theatre circuit in Belfast and Dublin, recent roles have included Bill Hickock in "Calamity Jane", Pilate in "Jesus Christ Superstar", Jud in "Oklahoma" and Bill Bobstay in Lyric Opera's production of "HMS Pinafore" in the National Concert Hall in Dublin. Most recently Karl has played the role of Sweeney Todd for which he won the AIMs award for Best Male Singer in a Musical.
Karl has had the opportunity to tour with the Celtic Tenors, Liam Lawton and the RTE Concert Orchestra. In most recent times he played the title role of Jekyll and Hyde in the Grand Opera House and Josef Locke in The Lyric Theatre.

 

 

Jenny Bourke is a mezzo-soprano and singing teacher from Belfast.
She studied at Queen's University and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
She performs with the eight-voice choir, Melisma, and teaches voice lessons in schools and Queen's University.
In February 2017, she held a workshop alongside Dr Trevor Agus on the Science of Singing as part of the NI Science Festival at Queen's University Belfast.
 
The Blackstaff Trio is a traditional ceili music band consisting of Patrick Davey, Loreto McAuley and Mairéad Forde.
Patrick Davey is a performer, teacher and composer of traditional Irish music. he is a former Senior All-Irelands uilleann pipes champion and is the Senior Examiner for the Irish traditional examinations of The London College of Music. He also has a background in classical music and holds a Bachelor's degree in Music, and a Master's of Arts degree in Baroque Performance.
Mairéad studied violin at Francis McPeake School of Music in Belfast. She is currently the Fiddle player with McPEAKE; nominated as "Best Traditional Band" at the 2012 Irish Music Awards. She also featured in the Emmy Award Winning PBS documentary , "Music of Ireland".
Loreto is a freelance musician based in Belfast, director of Amadeus Music and founder of the chamber choir 'Voices', the McAuley Piano Trio and the McAuley Harp Trio.

 

 

Loreto McAuley is a musician from Belfast who plays as part of The Blackstaff Trio and is the director of Sacred Services, a music agency offering the services of professional and semi-professional church musicians.
She is a freelance musical director, pianist, organist, harpist, arranger and composer who specialises in church music.
Loreto is the former director of Music at Saint Peter's Cathedral Parish, Belfast. She studied for degrees of Computer Science (Master's Degree) and Bachelor of Music (Hons) at Queen's University Belfast.
Loreto will be joining us in The Blackstaff Trio and accompanying the wonderful Jenny Bourke.

 

 

Peter Flanagan is a radio show personality currently working on Downtown Radio & Cool FM. Previous shows include Blast 106 (more music weekends) and 'The Peter Flanagan Show' on Lisburn's 98FM.
He graduated from Queen's University Belfast with a Bachelor's degree in Music 2016, after having achieved his HND in Music with South Eastern Regional College.
Peter also performs as a pianist and accompanist for weddings, parties and corporate events.

 

 

Rosemary Aiken is a classical pianist and teacher from Lisburn. Having performed since a young age, her skill and talent shows effortlessly when she plays.
Rosemary and Angela are the best of friends ('we've known each other for 55 years!') and enjoyed playing piano duets as students, before both became piano teachers when they finished education.

 

Also appearing at the concert is Julie Hill who is flying over from England to speak.

Julie is a  Back Up Volunteer and former Chair of trustees, and had her spinal cord injury in 1990. It was caused by a car accident which left her permanently paralysed from the waist down.

She is now one of Back Up's longest-serving volunteers and has been involved in all aspects of their work.

On January 26th 2017, Julie received a British Citizen Award (BCA) presented by BCA Patron and TV personality, Bradley Walsh.

Julie is also the author of the book behind the 2005 ITV drama "Footprints in the Snow" starring Caroline Quentin and Kevin Whately.

It promises to be a great night!

7.30pm at Pond Park Primary School, Lisburn