If age is only a number, why focus on it so much?
MUSIC lovers of every kind could do worse than tune into Choir of Ages, the terrific new RTÉ series where conductor David Brophy sets up two new choirs – one in Crumlin in Dublin and the other in Kiltyclogher, an undiscovered beauty spot in north Leitrim.
The choirs are made up of OAPs and primary schoolchildren because as David points out, it’s rare that the two generations collaborate over anything.
The show might also be something of a PR drive for Kiltyclogher, which ran a social media campaign earlier this year to attract people to settle there.
At the time the cruel hand of rural depopulation had threatened the survival of the village’s two-teacher school which needed at least 15 pupils for viability.
Judging from the first episode, Kiltyclogher is still open for business although the fact that David Brophy had to cast his net beyond its environs, towards Kinlough and Manorhamilton suggests that singers, like schoolchildren, might be in short supply.
The episode – which is repeated this afternoon on RTÉ – also hints that so far at least, it’s the golden oldies who are gaining most from the experience.
‘Never let age put you off trying something new,’ said an 84-year-old Leitrim man, flushed from his firstever public performance.
Age is just a number, everyone agreed.
But if that’s really the case, why is the age of every elderly participant included in subtitles beside their name?
At the risk of nit-picking, the relentless focus on age seems to defeat the spirit of the series.