Celebrate The Magic Of Christmas With Andy Cooney

Andy Cooney has been christened by The New York Times as "Irish America's Favorite Son." Now, for the second year in a row Andy Cooney will headline The Magic of Christmas at Carnegie Hall on December 8th.

Andy Cooney has been singing Irish songs literally all his life and has been wowing audiences since he was a teenager when he began singing at many famous Irish establishments in the New York area. He started touring at age 19 with the legendary Paddy Noonan gaining national exposure for his talent. Since then he has been performing on the road year round and has recorded 20 albums. Andy has performed and recorded with the finest musicians and singers on the Irish and Country music scenes including Phil Coulter, Joannie Madden, Seamus Egan, Eileen Ivers, Crystal Gayle, Larry Gatlin, Ronan Tynan, The Oak Ridge Boys, The Statler Brothers and Charlie Daniels.

Andy has just released a Christmas CD called The Magic of Christmas, recorded with Ireland's National Concert Orchestra. The show at Carnegie Hall will feature many of the traditional and popular songs from this album including 'Oh Come All Ye Faithful', 'Sleigh Ride', 'Oh Holy Night', 'Silver Bells', 'I'll Be Home For Christmas' and more.

That evening, Andy will be presenting a special guest, Grammy Award winning singer, Crystal Gayle. Famous for her signature song 'Don't it Make My Brown Eyes Blue', Ms. Gayle has decades of hits behind her and has won many awards for her music including the Country Music Awards, The Grammies and The American Music Awards. Andy and Crystal will also perform the duet they recorded, 'You Were Never Too Far From My Mind', from Andy''s previous CD, It'll Be Me.

Joining Andy on stage will be another Grammy Award winning musician and fiddle player extraordinaire, Eileen Ivers. Having garnered nine All Ireland Fiddle Championships and the original fiddle player in Riverdance, Eileen has gone on to a very successful career both as a solo artist and with her group Immigrant Soul. Eileen has been called the "Jimi Hendrix of the violin" by the New York Times, bridging the gap between her Celtic roots and the ethnic beats of Latin, Jazz and African music.

Andy's 13 year old son Ryan Cooney, who made his singing debut at Carnegie Hall last Christmas and brought the house down with his rendition of the 'Little Drummer Boy', returns for an encore performance. The orchestra is conducted by Gearoid Grant who has been the conductor of the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland since it was formed in 1980. The choir includes the Festival Youth Chorus, directed by Eily O'Grady Patterson, and is comprised of children who hail from the NY area. In addition, the Fordham University Choir, directed by Robert Minotti, will lend their voices. Angela Kelly Molloy is the host.