It took years of preparatory chats, but finally in December 2018 the stars were aligned, and the DerryAirs quartet was born. To our joy, and relief, we discovered we had a promising range of voices - a first and a second tenor, a baritone and a bass. For one of our first rehearsals we visited Jonathan Lewsey, operatic bass, musical director and singing teacher in south-east Cornwall, to check out whether he thought we might have a future. And miracle of miracles we were up and running.

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Sea shanties have been a big focus for us from the beginning, but the DerryAirs songbook is steadily expanding to include folk songs and pop songs. We have a growing enthusiasm to tell some of the stories of our adopted homeland, Cornwall, through song. The harmonies we seek need equal amounts of perspiration and inspiration. We are putting in the perspiration, and the inspiration is all around us, in the sea, the sky, the rain and the wind.

One of our earliest gigs was across the water in Brittany in Plouguerneau, home of our Breton twinning friends, which persuaded us early on to add French songs to our repertoire…and who knows, where it may lead next…

We are loving rehearsing for you, and we hope you enjoy listening to some of our songs, and let’s hope we have a chance to be together soon.