The Celtic Tenors began life as the Three Irish Tenors on RTE's Theatre Nights on October 1995. The group at that time consisted of James Nelson, Niall Morris and Paul Hennessey.[1]
In 2000, Matthew "Gilly" Gilsenan replaced Paul Henessey and the Celtic Tenors were then formed and signed to EMI. Singing a mixture of Celtic, Operatic and re-worked popular songs, the group have travelled extensively with many tours concentrated in the USA, Canada, Germany and the Netherlands. The group have performed with some of the world's leading orchestras including The Toronto Symphony, the Cincinnati Pops, and the Vancouver Symphony orchestra.
In June 2006, Niall Morris bowed out of the group and a young tenor from Omagh in Northern Ireland Daryl Simpson stepped into the group.
The Celtic Tenors have released four records with the EMI, Telarc and Dara labels. Their first album went on to achieve double platinum status in their homeland, Number 1 in Ireland and Germany, Number 2 in the UK, and won them the "Echo Award" for ‘Best Classical Crossover Act’ in Germany. They have recently recorded their fifth album entitled 'Hard Times'. It is an album comprising solely of American Song writers including Bob Dylan, David Baerwald, Randy Newman and Stephen Foster. The album was released by Compass Records in the USA on June 2, 2009.[2]