Choral Festival is a huge success
THE Spring Choral Festival 2019 has once again proved to be an outstanding success for the choral fraternity of the north east with no fewer than 14 choirs featured in the extravaganza hosted by the Holy Family Church in Ballsgrove.
For such a huge event, the organisers, led by Siobhan Seberry, Joe Heeney and Jim Walsh, do a marvellous job in ensuring the evening runs with seamless fluidity.
This Choral Festival began some years ago under the banner of the Tenure Choral Festival but has grown to its present prominence to broaden the geographical participation of the many choirs who now wish to take part.
The occasion had choral music for all tastes and age ranges, including the Drogheda Boys Choir, who melted hearts with their splendid performance. Under the baton of their prolific Musical Director, Sharon Gaynor, they performed a stunning version of the Cold Play classic ‘Fix You’ which really impressed their illustrious audience. They then went into the knock out, ‘ This is Me’ from ‘ The Greatest Showman’ which received a standing ovation. In their two year existence the boys have bridged a 40 year gap in boys choral singing in Drogheda.
The Tenure Church Choir, from where it all started, gave a lovely rendering of ‘Walking In The Air’ and the Irish traditional blessing, ‘May The Road Rise To Meet You’ which is embellished with verses from the Book of Ecclesiastes.
This year’s hosts, The Holy Family Church Choir, had the task of welcoming their fellow choristers with the evening’s opening pieces which featured the delightful ‘Adoro Te’ and ‘A Mhuire Mhatair’ which set up their guests for a splendid evening of song.
Master of Ceremonies, Jim Walsh, was an informative MC and made sure that proceedings moved along efficiently throughout the evening without any glitches.
Each of the 14 choirs added their own particular blend of harmony to the Festival, all of which was thoroughly enjoyed by their fellow choristers and the large audience. The beautiful intricate harmony sound of Sonata Singers, recent choral winners double winners in Arklow, were once again simply majestic. The sporting fraternity also showed their choral singing prowess with the Laytown and Bettystown Golf Club choir providing two lovely pieces, ‘Whispering Hope’ and ‘Sound of Silence’.
Other choirs taking part included Skerries Community Choir, Balbriggan Gospel Choir, Navan Community Choir, Mornington Gospel Choir, Meath Diocesan Choir, The Heritage Choir and the Louth Hospitals Choir which all added to the fantastic night of entertainment before the Drogheda Male Voice Choir brought the proceedings to a conclusion.
The participating choirs assembled, in their now traditional style, to bring the evening to a close with ‘Va Pensiero’.