YOUNG VOICES SHINE IN COUNTY HALL
THE street area of County Hall in Carricklawn reverberated to the sound of exquisite voices when it staged a Young Voices of Wexford concert.
The concert, which was the brainchild of Dr Stephen Bowe, was organised by a six-person committee which, in addition to Dr Bowe, was composed of: Caroline Daly-Jones; Cllr Tony Dempsey; Joe Kennedy; Deirdre Sinnott; Rebecca Warren and Pat Jackman.
Ms Daly-Jones commented on the event to this newspaper and highlighted how it was specifically aimed at giving young people a platform to showcase their talent.
However, the organisers worked hard at ensuring it involved students from the six secondary schools in the Wexford town and district area who rarely if ever performed in public before.
As Ms Daly-Jones pointed out: ‘Most of the people there had never heard any of the performers before and were amazed by what they witnessed.’
‘There were some truly outstanding performances,’ she said.
‘This was long dream of Dr Bowe and he and the committee were delighted to see it come to fruition,’ she added.
‘It was great to see people, some of whom had never been on a stage before, get up and perform confidently.’
The schools were invited to nominate students to perform and the line-up produced an eclectic mix of material from classical to pop to Gospel.
‘The teachers were very supportive and came on board immediately,’ said Ms Daly-Jones.
The event had an audience of around 180 people and the committee were very appreciative of the support they received from local authority staff members and from Tony Barnes in Trax music store as well as Crimewatch security for stewarding the car park.
However, this was an event that was all about what happened on stage and with 15 soloists, three singing groups and a Gospel choir it had it all.