Back to Doh – Re – Mi

Our choir recently participated in the St. Patrick’s festival, at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Armagh. Choir member, Seán Ó Callanáin reflects on their experiences…

… I like to think that exposure to choral music in one’s youth is akin to hosting a recurring “bug”. Ever after, we remain vulnerable to a recall to active choral service.

Mary Fitzgerald deserves much praise for offering RTAI Cork members a happy reacquaintance with choral membership. Our early efforts in 2011 were of the “Ar mhaithe leis féin a dheineann an cat crónán”. However, and somewhat to our surprise, invitations began to arrive, asking us to sing in public.

With the appointment of Mary G O’ Brien as conductor, we began to bloom.

The weekend of March 12th 2016 saw the choir embark on its most ambitious challenge to date. We were invited to participate in a televised St. Patrick’s Day Special in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Armagh. In a joint venture with “Cantabile” a leading Cork female choir, we were honoured to give the first performance of our conductor’s commissioned work, “Reflections on Peace“. We also joined the massed choirs for 4 other pieces.

The extra rehearsals required, plus our response to a challenge, brought out in each of us our “Inner Cór – Fhéile – child”, with the expeced adrenaline surge and enhanced performance thankfully delivered.

The long trek to Armagh added to making our choral adventure a tad exotic! To see the inner workings of television content in the making was fascinating. We could but wonder how the overall musical director, John Anderson kept the 450 choral singers at one. Dance, poetry and solo singing were leaven to the choral feast on offer. For RTAI Cork members it was a wonderful opportunity to take part in something bigger than ourselves and be able to hold our heads high.

You can watch us here at Minute 40.

The post-performance  sing-song was epic. Not even the “pipe-bomb” explosion in a nearby street, heard by many of us, managed to dampen our spirits!

The blushes of a choir member who asked the new Archbishop of Armagh, “Are you one of the Singing Priests?” will be spared…. for now!

Somewhere between our “Tosú lag” and now, we have become a happy singing community.

Come Sing with Us!

Go raibh maith agaibh, Derry, Ger agus Edel, as ucht na griangrafanna a sheoladh isteach.

Even more have been added!

Here’s a link to the Cantabile Blog