In conversation with FRANCES O'ROURKE
MATTHEW GILSENAN
grew up in Moynalty, Co Meath and studied engineering in UCD while also studying singing in the College of Music. He worked as an engineer for five years before becoming a full-time singer, joining The Three Irish Tenors in 1998. He lives in Moynalty with his wife Celestine and their three children
I ’ve always sung, always loved singing: in national school in Moynalty, Co Meath, a teacher called Mrs Murchan collared anyone with promise and fed us to the nuns in Kells, where Sister Dominic gave me my first singing lesson. I studied engineering in UCD but at the same time was studying singing with Mary Brennan in the College of Music.
After UCD, I got a good job as an engineer in England: after five years, I took six months off and got to sing with the National Chamber Choir, and with Opera Ireland. And that’s where James heard me. He asked me if I was interested in joining his group for the Clontarf Castle show, for €800 a week.
It was a sink or swim situation: James had 10 years experience behind him, I had five years of singing into electrical cabinets, driving work colleagues in England mad. It was like singing a full role every night: luckily, I swam – and I loved it. After six months, we were well polished, were taken to EMI, sang six songs – and were signed on the spot.
I had joined the lads – James and Niall Morris – at a difficult time for them: they’d been singing as The Three Irish Tenors, then Ronan [Tynan], Finbar [Wright] and Anthony Kearns formed The Irish Tenors and they thought it was all over. We just kept our head down, kept it small, with a piano and a small band and as it turned out, that was a business model that worked.
I was aware of James, he was in the Chamber Choir ahead of me. I was very much surprised when he asked me to join the group. He had a gentleness and an amazingly creative side when it came to harmony and general musicianship. He got higher marks than anyone else in UCD in harmony, and there were loads of truly great people in his year. He’s a musical heavyweight: he created the framework for some really great music and that’s why he’s the soul of The Celtic Tenors. Harmony is kind of our unique selling point.
Daryl Simpson joined the trio in 2005, replacing Niall, so James and I are the constants, and have been together for 13 years.
A few years ago, James and I bought the business, had to remortgage our houses and pay off vast amounts of money after a very amicable split with our manager: it does test a friendship, but through thick and thin, the friendship has always won out. The great balm for us is the music: there’s something absolutely magical about standing in front of thousands of people and making them happy.
James is incredibly kind and generous, it is a brother relationship. His best quality is his sense of humour, he makes me laugh out loud every day.
JAMES NELSON
is a classically trained opera singer and founder member of The Celtic Tenors, a classical crossover trio which began life as The Three Irish Tenors in 1995. Originally from Sligo, he now lives in Baltinglass, Co Wicklow
Matthew and I were both in UCD and the College of Music at similar times, but didn’t know each other, although we met eventually in Opera Ireland. Then The Three Irish Tenors – the trio I was in – were asked to do a summer series in Clontarf Castle: one of the trio, Paul Hennessy, wanted to leave and Matthew seemed the obvious choice to replace him. I thought he was very innocent, a country lad: he was very smiley, very friendly. We played 136 shows in a row, concert promoter Pat Egan heard us, brought us to EMI and Decca, and EMI signed us up. We became The Celtic Tenors. That was in 1999.
I’d begun a career in opera, had moved to London, got an agent, made my debut in the Opera Liceu in Barcelona before becoming part of a tenor trio. I’ve always said, it’s truly about the music: if I stop enjoying the music, I’ll give it up. We’re on tour, in the same car/bus/plane, for 10 months of the year – by now, Matthew and I have telepathy. We’re just back from Germany, were on a Chinese tour before that, were in the US and Canada and are back in the States with a Christmas concert tour this month. If we weren’t friends, it wouldn’t work.
My dad, who’s a jeweller in Sligo, my wonderful sister and her husband and their three children are my family; I’ve had no contact with my two older brothers for years. That’s where Matthew and Daryl Simpson step in – they’re truly like brothers to me. Matthew got married in 2000 and I was his best man.
We get on incredibly well, and that camaraderie is important for our onstage banter. But it can go wrong: there was the time when we were asked for a request and suddenly we heard Matthew saying: ‘and now, for a lady who’s 97 years old today, Time to Say Goodbye’.
Matthew’s like an eager little kid, sometimes we call him the Father Dougal of the group. And he was there at a very low point for me, when my mother died on Good Friday, 2002. We went ahead with the show we were doing on Easter Saturday and Matthew was amazing.
We all have a creative side but he’s the business head, although I will have to embrace that as we go on.
I hope that Matthew will some day come with me to Nairobi with Kenya Build, the charity my friend Basil Love set up, he’s an engineer and he’d be wonderful as part of a building team.
The Celtic Tenors play in Ireland on December 20th-23rd, in Clarecastle, Co Clare; Glin, Co Limerick; Moynalty, Co Meath and Ballisodare, Co Sligo, and in Mulranny Park, Hotel, Co Mayo, on January 5th.
