New Course For Church Musicians Starts in Avoca; Shipyard choir’s Centenary concert; St Patrick’s Good Friday Concert; Belfast Cathedral Easter Sung Eucharist broadcast; Review – Clannad at Christ Church
New Course For Church Musicians Starts in Avoca
Over the last year, Church Music Dublin has been working on devising a new course mainly aimed at church musicians in parishes where resources are limited – for example where there may be no choir, no pipe organ and a small congregation.
This new course Hearts & Hands & Voices will be launched in Castlemacadam Church in Avoca, County Wicklow and led by Ann Keary and Derek Verso. Over 4 sessions during March and April, participants will work together in group sessions and the more traditional one to one method for keyboard skills.
Hearts & Hands & Voices will be particularly suited to the person who plays in church occasionally and would like to improve their skills or those who would like to start playing in church. At the first session of this course, to be held on the evening of Thursday March 21, clergy are requested to come along with their church musicians when the session will look at how these two ministries interact, as well as ways of encouraging congregational singing and planning services.
The other three sessions are on Saturdays in April – 6,13 and 27 – and will concentrate on practical music making in a church setting. An application form and full details of the course, including the repertoire to be covered, is on the Church Music Dublin website: www.churchmusicdublin.org.
Further information is available from Jacqueline Mullen (hon sec) at
honsec@churchmusicdublin.org.
The total cost for entire course is €100 including refreshments. Parishes are encouraged to co sponsor a participant for this new course.
Shipyard choir’s Centenary concert
On Saturday 16th March 2013 – Queen’s Island Victoria MVC will celebrate its centenary with a concert of massed choirs in the Ulster Hall at 8.00pm
The Queen’s Island Victoria Male Choir was formed in 1974 when the two oldest choirs in the province amalgamated. The Queen’s Island Choir had been formed in 1912 and the Victoria choir in 1916, both originating in the Harland & Wolff Shipyard in Belfast.
In the years both before and after the 1939-45 war the two Choirs preformed with great distinction in musical competitions throughout the British Isles. Indeed during the war, the Queen’s Island Choir broadcast from belfast on the national airwaves to give the impression to the enemy of normality in the country. Among previous conductors of the of the two Choirs were John Vine and Douglas Armstrong, men of great distinction in the province.
During the early 1970’s both choirs were finding it difficult to maintain their membership as a result of “The Troubles” and rather than disband they decided to join forces and the Queen’s Island Victoria Male Voice Choir was born. The title of the Choir was changed in May 2005 to Queen’s Island Male Choir.
The Choir is now established as one of the foremost in the province and it devotes much of its time and energy to charity Concerts and church Services. Between 1998and 200 the Queen’s Island Victoria joined forces with the Wexford and Neath Male Choirs to preform Tri-Choral Concerts in Wexford at Neath in Wales and then in Belfast. This final Concert, in the Ulster Hall in 2000, was the culimination of the 25th Anniversary celebrations for the Queen’s Island Victoria Male Choir.
In March 2002 the choir was invited by the South Wales Branch of the Welsh Association of Male Choir’s to sing with them at their 40th Anniversary Festival Concert in the Royal Albert Hall in London. This venture proved to be a huge success, not least because of the great honor bestowed on their conductor, Richard Laird. From time to time the Welsh Association invite an individual Musical Director to conduct the massed ranks at the festival and in 2002 Richard became the seventh and the first non-Welsh person to be chosen. He led 750 men singing “Deus Salutis” in Welsh. It was the proudest moment in his and the Choir’s musical life. Then in October 2004 the Choir again preformed in the Royal Albert Hall , this time with both the South and North Wales Branches of the Association, at these two memorable concerts the QIVMC sang no fewer than 12 pieces in welsh.
On 27th September, 2003 the Queen’s Island Victoria Male Choir were joined by two choirs from Wales – the Bryncoch Male Choir and the Haverfordwest Male Choir, with special guest artiste Aled Jones. The star presenter of the popular BBC programme “Songs of Praise” and of classic FM. Returning to Belfast in March 2005 to Sing with the QIVMC and Warringtown Primary School Choir, winners of the junior section of Songs of Praise Choir for 2004.
On the local front in recent years, the QIVMC has given pleasure to audiences in Armagh, Newry, Coleriane, Enniskillen, and Omagh as well as Belfast area. The Choir continues to grow in strength and reputation maintaining the proud traditions of the two original Choirs.
A centenary thanksgiving service will be held in Groomsport Presbyterian Church at 7.00 pm on 12 May.
Choir contact – http://www.qivmalechoir.com/contact.asp
St Patrick’s Good Friday Concert
Carmichael Centre for Voluntary Groups presents Dublin’s Good Friday Concert – Rossini’s “Stabat Mater” – in St Patrick’s Cathedral on
29th March at 8.00
Choir: The Goethe-Institut Choir
Orchestra: Dublin Orchestral Players, (Ciaran Crilly, Principal Conductor)
Soprano: Virginia Kerr, Alto: Annmarie Gibbons, Tenor: Jacek Wiskovski , Bass: Philip O’Reilly
Conductor: John Dexter
http://www.stpatrickscathedral.ie/Evening_Concerts_and_Events.aspx
Belfast Cathedral Easter Sung Eucharist broadcast
The Easter Day Sung Eucharist will be broadcast live on Radio Ulster and will take place at 10:15 a.m., rather than the usual time of 11.00 a.m.
The preacher will be the Rt Revd Harold Miller, Bishop of Down and Dromore. Those attending are asked to take their seats by 10.00a.m. to facilitate the broadcast.
Clannad at Christ Church
This review of Clannad – Christ Church Cathedral (ARC Music EUCD2441, 2013) was carried by World Music Central
Clannad’s live performance at Dublin’s ancient Christ Church Cathedral is now available on CD and DVD. Clannad is a seminal Irish band with a long career. For this occasion, the Celtic group focused on its earlier acoustic material, which was more appropriate for the intimate environment of the cathedral.
The Irish band is well-known for its beautiful solo and harmony vocals and its mix of Irish traditional music with contemporary elements, using lyrics in Irish and English. Some of Clannad’s songs became hits in Ireland and abroad. The enduring and hauntingly beautiful ‘Theme From Harry’s Game,’ which appears in the Christ Church Cathedral concert, was also used in the popular Dialogos 3 radio show on Radio Nacional de España’s Radio 3 in Spain. This made the group extremely popular and memorable in Spain.
The Christ Church Cathedral recording brings together the original Clannad lineup, featuring siblings Moya, Ciaran and Pol Brennan, together with their twin uncles Noel and Padraig Duggan. The five musicians present their captivating unique style, delivering their most iconic material, including the previously mentioned ‘Theme From Harry’s Game’, ‘In A Lifetime’, ‘I Will Find You’, ‘Dulaman’, and the soundtrack to the ‘Robin of Sherwood’ TV series.
“When we were asked to perform in Christ Church Cathedral we really wanted to put together a unique show that would complement the spectacular surroundings,” says Moya Brennan. “It was the first time in many years that we had played in such an intimate setting and in choosing the program it made us go right back to the earliest days of our forty years as a band, we even start the show with the first song Clannad ever played together.”
As the January 29th, 2011 concert progressed, Clannad invited various guests to the stage, including famed Irish choir Anuna, singer Brian Kennedy, fiddler and vocalist Maire Breatnach, singer and fiddler Sinead Madden (from Moya Brennan’s backing band), Jane Hughes on cello, Robbie Harris on percussion and Eamonn DeBarra on keyboards.
“The show is almost like a history of the band,” adds Ciaran Brenan, “starting with just the five of us on stage, as it was in the beginning, and gradually being joined by some wonderful musicians and very special guests. The backdrop of the cathedral’s architecture provided the perfect setting for us and everything just felt very special on the night.”
Clannad – Christ Church Cathedral is a splendid album by the exceptionally good Clannad, a groundbreaking Irish band with truly memorable songs. A perfect CD and DVD to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.
http://worldmusiccentral.org/2013/02/17/an-intimate-history-of-clannad/