FESTIVAL SINGERS:
WEXFORD Festival Singers will present a special choral concert in Rowe Street Church on on Sunday, October 21, at 3 p.m., singing Jubilate Deo by the young American composer Dan Forrest, an exciting and joyful piece in seven movements and seven languages, including Zulu and Hebrew.
The 40-strong choir of varying ages, voices and backgrounds will be joined for the concert by soloists and musicians in the orchestra as well as members of County Wexford School of Music Singers, creating a major musical occasion.
Conducted by choral director Dr Kevin O’Carroll, the performance will feature soloists Róisín O’Grady (soprano) and Gina Oberoi (mezzo soprano) with the Jubilate Orchestra Ensemble, led by Eimear Heeney, as well as members of Madrigallery Chamber Choir from Waterford, Wicklow Choral Society and County Wexford School of Music Singers.
Tickets at €18 each are available from www.wexfordartscentre.com, telephone 053 9123764 or from any Wexford Festival Singers member.
Established in 1975, Wexford Festival Singers is a mixed voice choir whose repertoire ranges from major classical to contemporary works. Members come from Wexford, Waterford, Carlow, Kilkenny, Wicklow and further afield, and include all ages, backgrounds, occupations and interests.
Their common bond is a love of music and a desire to share it with the community. The choir performs a number of concerts each year, the highlight of which is the well known annual Wexford Festival Choral Concert.
Set in seven different languages – Latin, Spanish, Hebrew, Arabic, Zulu, Mandarin and English – and drawing from a wide spectrum of musical influences, Dan Forrest’s extraordinary Jubilate Deo brings to life the global aspect of the traditional Psalm 100 text ‘O be joyful in the Lord, all ye lands’. Stirring, exuberant, joyful, thoughtful, prayerful and soothing, this monumental work pulls all the emotional strings and wraps the singers and audience in a universal embrace.
Dan Forrest’s music has sold millions of copies worldwide and his choral works have become well established in the repertoire of choirs internationally, winning numerous awards.
Dr Kevin O’Carroll is a choral conducting teacher and workshop leader. He has provided workshops for choirs all over the island of Ireland, Scandinavia and the US. Kevin is a conducting tutor at NUI Maynooth and University of Limerick, and is an examiner for the Royal Irish Academy of Music.
Soprano Róisín O’Grady completed a BA in Music and Italian at UCC, a Postgraduate Diploma in concert singing at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Glasgow, and an MA in Performance at the Cork School of Music. Specialising in the performance of early music, as part of the early music duo Tonos, she has performed at the National Concert Hall, the National Gallery of Ireland, Sligo Festival of Baroque Music, and has been broadcast on RTÉ Lyric FM.
Mezzo soprano Gina Oberoi studied singing at the DIT Conservatory of Music with Emmanuel Lawler, where she also completed her BA in Music in 2008. Gina’s singing has taken her to Italy, Holland, Japan, Germany, the UK and the Czech Republic where she performed Mahler’s 8th Symphony under Christoph Eschenbach. A multi award winner at Feis Ceoil,
Eimear Heeney began studying violin at the age of four. A multiple prize-winner at the Dublin Feis Ceoil, Eimear was also a member of the National Youth Orchestra for 10 years and completed an MA in Violin Performance in 2007. Currently teaching violin, Budding Bows and Concert Strings at WIT, Eimear is co-leader of the Waterford Concert Orchestra and has performed with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and as a soloist with the three tenors.