Eagerly-awaited Redemptorist Church Choir CD launched

In the last week the eagerly awaited launch of the CD featuring the music of St. Joseph’s Redemptorist Church choir was launched.

The choir has been in existence since 1894 and over the years embellished not just the church services, but performed on many occasions at social and public events.

Today it comprises 40 members, and the voices of these members echo those of some very prominent townspeople from the past such as the renowned tenor, the late Brendan O’Dowda who performed with the choir in his youth.

The motivation for the choir to produce their own CD has come no doubt from the encouragement they have received from congregations attending St. Joseph’s and from their appearances in concerts and on RTE television, most notably when they performed in St. Joseph’s with one of our own, the renowned mezzo-soprano, Tara Erraught at the live broadcast on Christmas Eve from RTE.

The CD which went on sale during the annual St. Gerard’s Novena contains 12 beautiful pieces, many associated with religious services such as ‘Ava Maria’, ‘How Great thou art’ and that enchanting piece by the composer of liturgical music, Lori True, ‘May the Road Rise to Meet You’.

It is indeed appropriate that the CD was launched in the week that ‘Sing Ireland’ engaged in extensive national publicity encouraging greater participation in the wide variety of choirs and singing groups throughout the country.

They maintain that singing has physiological, cognitive and mental health benefits and that involvement with a choir, or a singing group, can have life-changing effects on the lives of those who participate.

Those effects apply to any person regardless of their ability and the benefits can include meeting a community of singers, discovering new sounds, experience new connections and enhancing the quality of life.

Dundalk, over the years, has always been the home of exceptional choirs, most notably of all the Van Dessel choir, named after Michael Van Dessel, a native of Malines in Belgium who arrived in Dundalk in 1923 when he was appointed organist and choir master in the St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

The choir to which he gave his name performed not just in the Cathedral, but throughout Ireland and abroad - on one occasion in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome - and

won many prestigious awards at choral events.

Unfortunately nowadays many local choirs struggle to recruit new members and even St. Joseph’s choir is seeking new male voices to add to the 17 who perform with the female sopranos and altos on the CD.

No doubt the choir will perform some of the pieces from their CD at their weekly appearance at the 11.00 a.m. Mass in St. Joseph’s on Sundays, and over Christmas their programme of seasonal carols will fill the church with the joyous sounds of Christmas.

For those not attracted to join a church choir, ‘Sing Ireland’ runs inspiring training and networking events for they are committed to setting standards of excellence for the entire singing community.

Singing, they say, is for everyone, irrespective of ability.