Soprano Rita Lynch Is Back in the Big Apple with RTE lyric fm Radio Documentary

By: May. 19, 2016
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Soprano Rita Lynch (1914 - 2009) is back in the Big Apple. Sixty-seven years ago in 1949 Rita Lynch sang in New York, Chicago and Boston. Now, the RTÉ lyric fm radio documentary 'Digitising Rita' has made the finals of the New York Festivals Annual Radio Awards, the winners of which will be announced on the 20th of June.

'It's a big leap from boxes in my attic to New York's radio showpiece!", says Rita's daughter, Mary Davies. "The sifting, sorting, cataloging and curating of approximately 2000 items which included photos, programs, correspondence, contracts, fan mail and recordings on acetates, 78s and cassette tapes began on my sitting room floor in late 2013."

Gradually the project took shape and the way was guided by admirers and the unfailing help and encouragement of many, including RTÉ lyric fm's Dr. Evelyn Grant, Dr. Orla Murphy of UCC and Masters student Eibhlin Hegarty, Soprano Cara O'Sullivan, Cork City Library's Liam Ronayne and Kitty Buckley, former Lord Mayor of Cork, Mary Shields and the technical skill of Tadhg Kelleher and Harry Bradshaw.

The celebration of the centenary of Rita's birth on the 2nd December 1914 in Macroom, Co. Cork became the target date and bang on the day the Cork City Music Library hosted the launch of seven beautiful storyboards of Rita's life, exhibition cases of fascinating ephemera, a CD (singing from 1948 - 1976) and a Digital Archive of 2000 items.

All the while, Evelyn Grant was quietly beavering away on the sound side of the things and with RTÉ lyric fm producer, Eoin O'Kelly completed the wonderful 'Digitising Rita' documentary for the 'Lyric Feature' on RTÉ lyric fm which was broadcast on the 9th October 2015 and again on the 4th March 2016.

radiotoday.ie/2016/05/rte-dominates-shortlist-for-new-york-festivals/

Rita Lynch was born in Macroom in 1914 and showed an early talent for singing which was encouraged by her mother. Despite having her early career disrupted by the Second World War she went on to record for HMV and to tour extensively performing in operas, concerts and oratorios in Ireland, the UK and the USA. In this documentary, Evelyn Grant visits the soprano's daughter Mary Davies as she sifts through the extensive personal archive of letters, programmes, costumes, recordings and stories which her mother left behind. We get a portrait of the singer and the times she lived in. Rita Lynch's archive has now being digitised by Cork City Libraries.

www.rte.ie/lyricfm/the-lyric-feature/programmes/2016/0304/772719-the-lyric-feature-friday-4-march-2016/?clipid=2124233

 


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