Our Story

New Irish Arts

Founded in 1994 by Irish hymn-writer Keith Getty, our central purpose is to encourage people to worship God, whether that be in equipping and giving opportunity to musicians or leading congregations and audiences in praise to our God. We have several hundred volunteer musicians and our audio/visual team working together to produce a diverse programme of creative events, mostly centred around music. Wherever possible, we work in partnership with local churches and organisations across Ireland.

What we do—

Through our choir, orchestra and youth choir & orchestra we have produced over 100 large concerts and events across Ireland. As well as playing in venues such as the Belfast Waterfront Hall and the Ulster Hall we have also produced regular broadcasts on BBC and RTE TV and Radio, often producing scripts for services as well as music.

Themed Events
We have produced quality events involving stories, music and images, based on a wide variety of themes including the 100th anniversary of the end of World War 1, The Titanic, Forgiveness, St Patrick and our annual Ireland in Christmas Praise concert. We have worked alongside some great artists over the years including; Sara Groves, Rend Collective Experiment, Clannad’s Moya Brennan, Laura Story, Sandra McCracken, Matt Redman, Stuart Townend, Yazz, and of course Keith and Kristyn Getty.

Youth
New Irish Youth Choir, New Irish Senior Youth Choir and New Irish Youth Orchestra provide residential courses to train young musicians and singers in a fun environment with a Christian ethos. Find out more about our youth programmes here.

Recordings
We have produced our own albums as well as providing players and singers for other Christian artists such as Gettymusic, Robin Mark, Rend Collective and the Abaana New Life Choir.

Worship Leading
We provide leaders and musicians to facilitate congregational singing at conferences and services - past events have included New Horizon, Bangor Worldwide and Kinfire Festival.

Training
We provide courses to help church musicians and leaders to serve the church well.

Commissions
We commission artists, poets, writers and musicians to create new material for our events.

Staff

Jonathan Rea

Creative Director

Jonathan studied music at Cambridge University, winning the Rima Alamuddin prize for performance. He has served as Creative Director of New Irish Arts since 2005, and remains passionate about using the Arts to encourage people to worship God. His broader career includes work as conductor, pianist, composer, arranger, consultant, writer, producer and festival adjudicator. He leads the choir programme in Gettymusic’s Sing Conference in Nashville, and his conducting and arranging have featured extensively on BBC TV and radio. He was delighted to be awarded a BEM for services to music in the 2020 Queen’s Birthday Honours List. Jonathan contributes regularly to programmes like Thought for the Day and Morning Service. Jonathan is a member of Hamilton Road Baptist Church in Bangor, where he is occasionally involved in leading worship. He enjoys relaxing with his wife and their three sons - ideally somewhere sunny.

Steph Devlin

General Manager

Steph Devlin loves to see music used to encourage others. Steph first joined the New Irish Choir in 2016, and now works full-time for the organisation as General Manager. While her time is mostly focused on the behind the scenes running of New Irish, Steph also enjoys getting to regularly sing and lead worship at many church events and conferences. She released her debut album ‘Blessings’ in 2018, and continues to be active as a soloist in concerts, services, and broadcasts, as well as being involved with the music in her home church. Having led youth camps for a number of years, Steph loves investing in and encouraging young people spiritually, and so particularly loves her role in leadership of the New Irish Youth Choir and Orchestra residentials. Steph relaxes by spending time with her cat Sandy, by baking, and by walking on the beach, ideally in the direction of a good coffee shop with excellent traybakes.

New Irish Arts Limited is a company limited by guarantee governed by its Memorandum and Articles of Association. It is registered as a charity with the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland. The board of trustees administers the charity. It normally meets 5 times per year and if required a sub- committee may be appointed, for example to deal with recruitment. The Creative Director has been delegated authority for operational matters including artistic performance related activity. The trustees of the charity are appointed by the company members in accordance with the Memorandum and Articles of Association. Keith Getty founded New Irish Arts in 1994 and holds the title of Honorary President and continues to take a great deal of interest in the work of the organisation.

Board of Directors/Trustees

Dr David Bruce (Chair)

Rev. Ken Clarke (Vice Chair)

Mr Jeremy Eves

Dr. Andrew Jackson

Dr. Barbara McDade

Mrs Susan Walters

Mrs Natalie Ward

Mrs Fiona Woods (Financial Director/Company Secretary)

You can view a copy of our latest financial accounts here