Cherish the Ladies Founder and Leader
Joanie Madden to be Awarded Prestigious
2011 Ellis Island Medal of Honor
“(Joanie Madden) is the best flute and whistle player Irish America has ever produced.”
Paul Keating, Irish Voice Newspaper
NASHVILLE, TN (April 7, 2011) – After decades of touring the world while playing the music of her ancestors and paying tribute to her Irish heritage, Cherish the Ladies founder and leader, Joanie Madden, will be awarded the distinguished 2011 Ellis Island Medal of Honor Award. This year the event will take place on May 9 on Ellis Island.
The Ellis Island Medals of Honor are awarded annually to a group of distinguished American citizens who exemplify a life dedicated to community service and family, people who preserve and celebrate the history, traditions and values of his/her ancestry and who dedicate themselves to creating a better world. The honorees are said to exemplify outstanding qualities in both their personal and professional lives, while continuing to preserve the richness of their particular heritage.
The award ranks as one of the United States most prestigious national honors and both the United States Senate and House of Representatives have officially passed resolutions recognizing the Ellis Island Medals of Honor.
Each year, Ellis Island Medal of Honor recipients are listed in the Congressional Record honoring those who have made enduring contributions to our nation and to the world. Other luminary distinguished American citizens who have previously received this honor include 6 United States Presidents, US Senators, Congressman and Supreme Court Justices, Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio, Barbara Walters, Colin Powell, Muhammad Ali, Gregory Peck, Henry Kissinger, Donald Trump, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Quincy Jones, Rudy Guiliani, Itzhak Perlman, Yogi Berra, Vice President Joe Biden, Diane Sawyer, Astronaut John Glenn, Deepak Chopra, Madeleine Albright and Michael Douglas.
Cherish the Ladies have widely been considered one of the most beloved Celtic groups in the world for decades. As founder, Joanie Madden has helped take their notoriety to new heights, receiving numerous awards and achievements including; named Best Musical Group of the Year by the BBC, Top North American Celtic Group at the Irish Music Awards, Entertainment Group of the Year by the Irish Voice Newspaper, chosen the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall’s International Group of the Year at the Celtic Connections Festival in Scotland and voted Top North American Celtic act by NPR Radio “Thistle and Shamrock” program. In 2010, the ladies were immortalized as they were bestowed a street naming, “Joanie Madden and Cherish the Ladies” as a permanent street sign on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx, New York.
They have shared the stage with such noted entertainers as James Taylor, Joan Baez, EmmyLou Harris, The Clancy Brothers, Tommy Makem, The Chieftains and dozens of symphony orchestras. The “Celtic Album”, their collaboration with the Boston Pops Symphony led to a 1999 Grammy nomination.
The Ladies have recorded over a dozen highly acclaimed albums which were all released to rave reviews including their Christmas Album which was chosen as one of the top Albums of the Year by The New York Times, Washington Post, The Village Voice and many other nationally syndicated Newspapers.
Cherish the Ladies have appeared on CBS This Morning, Good Morning America, Evening at Pops, C-Span, PBS and National Public Radio in the United States and on BBC and RTE radio and television overseas. At the Summer Olympics in Atlanta, they were chosen to represent Irish music and culture at the Official Cultural Olympiad.
For more information on
Cherish The Ladies, please visit –
On the web – http://www.cherishtheladies.com/
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