David Brophy Meet the conductor with the power to change people’s lives
Conductor David Brophy has changed people’s lives with his inspirational choirs. His latest, Unsung Heroes, focuses on fulltime family carers. Donal O’Donoghue talks to him
I “’m a musician, that’s all I do,” says David Brophy. Ah, but that’s not the full picture, really. e former principal conductor of the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, and acclaimed musician, has long believed that music can change people’s lives. It changed his and he in turn has helped change the lives of others with the formation of e High Hopes Choir (singers from the homeless community) and e Choir of Ages (inter-generational mix). ose stories were told in a brace of TV documentaries. Now comes Unsung Heroes, and its inspirational choir of full-time family carers. It’s a two-part documentary lmed over six months last year in Wexford (home to Family Carers Ireland) and surrounding counties.
Unsung Heroes pulses with humour, heartbreak and hope. During one rehearsal, Christy Dignam and Aslan pop by for an emotionally charged performance of their classic track, Crazy World. Genuinely moved by the encounter, Dignam tells of his own struggles down the years and how singing with the choir was even better than notching up a Number One. ere is also a ‘pep talk’ cameo by Wexford hurling boss Davy Fitzgerald, who o ers his own unique brand of motivation, and singersongwriter, John Spillane, who helps the choir cra an original song for their big night at the National Opera House in Wexford.
En route to that nale, David Brophy conducts the narrative: using the tannoy system in a local supermarket to recruit choristers and staying overnight with full-time carer, Jane Johnstone, whose two teenage sons, Evan and Daniel, are living with autism. “You really don’t know what these people do until you see it rst hand,” says Brophy of the “humbling” experience. We also meet married couple Betty and Phil Power who care for their eldest son, Jason, who has cerebral palsy, as well as Hannah Power, who looks a er her husband, Patrick, diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, and Matthew and Martina McCartin, who share in the care of father and husband, Eddie, who has Parkinson’s and dementia.
Family Carers Ireland say that there are some 355,000 full-time family carers in Ireland, covering an estimated €10 billion bill for the health service. “Yet does anyone see carers?” asks Brophy early in the documentary.
“I’ve always tried to use music as a way of shining a light on parts of our country and its communities that don’t usually get a look in. And I’ve always thought that family carers, in my opinion, get a raw deal in Ireland. e documentary hopefully li s the lid on some things that go on in this country that we don’t really think about. And I’m as guilty of not seeing them as anybody else.”
Unsung Heroes was David Brophy’s rst experience of full-time carers. “It was a steep learning curve,” he says. “My own grandmother ended up in a care home and before that my mother would have cared for her, though not to the extent of a lot of the carers we see in the documentary. Also, my dad’s father similarly needed care as he had Parkinson’s disease and Auntie Margaret looked a er him for a long time. In my late teens, he would stay with us for a week or so to give Margaret respite and while I didn’t know what the word meant at that time, I remember those stays with the family.” Brophy was “kicked into” the local choir, e Green eld Singers, in Santry, Dublin, as a football-mad 11-year-old. “I’d have played football every day of the week so yes there was a bit of arm-twisting involved,” he laughs. Piano lessons followed at 13 and he played in two teen bands: e Fi h Victim (“we were terrible – I played the ddle solo to Fisherman’s Blues on the keyboard”) and e Ballad Brothers. He was late to classical music, his career-de ning decision in uenced by an astute art teacher, Mr Moran, who suggested he swap the paintbrush for the piano.
“People say to me I’ve no fear,” says the man who once conducted an entire concert from memory for a live EBU-wide event. “I’ve always tried to be open to other people and other ideas and I’ve been open to all kinds of music, jazz and pop and rock and trad and reggae and the rest, throughout my life. I have a naturally curious mind, curious about people and their stories, and in that situation, fear tends to take a back-seat. My greatest wish is that the choirs become autonomous and don’t need me any more. My role is evangelical. I just want to spread the word.”
Unsung Heroes is another sheet from the gospel of the eternally young-at-heart David Brophy. “I’ve no idea what this will do for me or the choir members,” says the 48-year-old. But on the eve of broadcast, he is hopeful that this new choir will live long beyond the TV show, empowering its singers and those who hear their song. “Apart from li ing the lid on what it is to be a full-time family carer in Ireland, I’d also like the documentary to make people look at themselves and think “Why do we treat our fellow citizens like this?” he says. “And to realise how lucky so many of us are.”
- David Brophy on Carers - You really don’t know what these people do until you see it first hand