'Golden Opportunities' is a new weekly series broadcasting on Evelyn Grant's Weekend Drive that explores how engaging in creativity can provide a lifeline in difficult times. In Episode 3 we meet members of the Dunshaughlin Choral Society as they collaborate remotely. Together they have been writing their own powerful song, expressing their thoughts on grief and loss during the pandemic. Here they sing their own composition.

Golden Opportunities - Absent Voices

We love Garret Daly's weekly Movie News slot on Aedín Gormley's Movies and Musicals. But we also love his clever opening jingles that include clips of recent films and this latest one is a real head-scratcher.

Movie News jingle teaser

Join Choirs all around the country in performing and recording your own rendition of The Galway Blessing from Elaine Agnew & Jessica Traynor's PaperBoat Opera.

A Galway Blessing - PaperBoat Anthem Voice & Piano

A Galway Blessing (Piano Solo)

About Suara
Suara is a Women's Community Choir, based in Ennis, County Clare and conducted by composer Fiona Linnane.  The choir are back rehearsing in the beautiful Cois na hAbhna venue in Ennis, after a two year break where both the singing and the companionship were missed.  Their repertoire has no limits - in this week's session alone they rehearsed a Ukrainian lullaby, a jazz classic and this arrangement of the Galway Blessing. As they are an a capella choir, the piano line for this song was replaced with some delicious alto harmonies!  Every rehearsal finishes with a cup of tea, a slice of cake and a chat - who could resist that?

Suara Women's Community Choir Ennis, Co Clare Singing A Galway Blessing

CCMA Memory Lane Choir, meets in the Centre for Music and Art. It is a choir for older people and people living with dementia, as well as their carers, family members and volunteer helpers. The Choir was started by Sr. Bernadette Sweeney, in 2015 and Gerry Noonan has been its Choral Director since then. They kept going, via Zoom, during the last two years, but are delighted to be meeting again in person. The choir always welcomes new members and they meet on Mondays at 11.00, in the CCMA in Crumlin.  The choir has performed at a number of events in the CCMA and also appeared on Nationwide a couple of years ago, as part of a feature on Sr. Bernadette and the CCMA. 
Our accompanist, Celine Carroll, is the pianist on this recording.

CCMA Memory Lane Choir, Dublin singing A Galway Blessing

Gerry Noonan has directed this choir since 2015. The Living Well with Dementia, Sweet Memories Choir, which meets on Saturday mornings in St. Raphaela's Convent in Stillorgan. The choir has been in existence for several years now and kept going, via Zoom, throughout the years of Covid restrictions, but it's great to be back together again. The choir is open to new members. The choir has performed in concert in Foxrock Church, pre-Covid. The choir also participated in the DLR Big Sing, over a number of years, as part of the DLR Age Inclusive Week. We have a wonderful group of volunteers, who help make everyone welcome each week; we could not survive without them!
On our recording, the choir is accompanied on piano keyboard, by Rob Connell and on violin, by Jennifer Sullivan.

Living Well With Dementia Sweet Memories Choir

BBC Radio Ulster presenter performs A Galway Blessing from Elaine Agnew's Community Opera Paperboat with lyrics by Jessica Traynor

BBC Radio Ulster Presenter John Toal sings A Galway Blessing with Elaine Agnew on piano

Josh Healy (voice/guitar) - Josh Healy is a young Belfast singer/songwriter, and has his own band Buí

A Galway Blessing - Josh Healy

A Galway Blessing performed by Josh Healy

Brendan trained at the Cork School of Music and the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama, and was granted a scholarship to study at the Opera Studio of La Monnaie de Munt in Brussels under renowned bass-baritone José van Dam. He made his Irish National Opera debut as Crespel in Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann in 2018, and returned to sing Yamadori in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly in March 2019. His repertoire of over 60 roles includes the title role in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, Conte Almaviva in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, Marcello in Puccini’s La bohème, Escamillo in Bizet’s Carmen, Tonio in Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, Alfio in Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana, Germont père in Verdi’s La traviata, Paolo Albiani in Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra, Masetto in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Pietro de Wisants in Donizetti’s L’assedio di Calais, Marullo in Verdi’s Rigoletto and Count Gil in Wolf-Ferrari’s Susanna’s Secret, in productions with Opera Theatre Company, Wide Open Opera, Cork Operatic Society, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, English Touring Opera, Scottish Opera, Longborough Festival Opera, Iford Opera and Northern Ireland Opera. He has performed at many of the world’s leading venues including the Royal Albert Hall in London, Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York, the National Opera House, Wexford, Kennedy Center, Washington DC, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, Stephansdom, Vienna, Kajetanerkirche, Salzburg, Grand Théâtre de la Ville de Luxembourg, Opéra de Lausanne, Westminster Cathedral, London, and the Hong Kong Cultural Centre.

A Galway Blessing- Brendan Collins

A Galway Blessing sung by baritone Brendan Collins

Matties’ Sessioneers are a group of part-time musicians and singers who play and sing locally in the East Antrim coastal area and beyond. The Sessioneers cover a wide genre of music including, Folk, Trad, Pop, Rock, Blue Grass, Americana and Sea Shanties and play a regular weekly Open Session in Carncastle, just north of Larne.

A Galway Blessing - Matties Sessioneers

Matties Sessioneers sing A Galway Blessing

Eden Chorale is a SATB community based choir from Edenderry in Co. Offaly but also has members from neighbouring Kildare. The choir perform locally at fundraising events, social gatherings and also perform two Christmas concerts annually.

Choir Director Ciara O’Connor Hackett makes rehearsals and performances enjoyable and memorable. Ciara is a Galway Girl born and bred so The Galway Blessing project is very close to her heart and her native Tuam where she visits her parents regularly.

The choir meets weekly from September to May and a shared love of music and singing in the company of an excellent director binds a lovely group of people together.

Eden Chorale, Edenderry sing A Galway Blessing

Hey folks,

We are so delighted to send you in our entry for A Galway Blessing. Firstly let me thank you for the opportunity, what a beautiful song! Absolutely amazing, we really enjoyed this. We are a family run music school based in Kilcock, SpeakUp SingOut. We specialise in choirs and have many groups, but we decided to give this opportunity to our two retired groups. 

We have a ladies choir called The Refired Choir! These ladies are between 65-81 and they absolutely love meeting every week. They love telling stories, having a cuppa after choir, and they are full of laughs and wisdom! They had been together just over a year when the pandemic happened but like the inspirational ladies they are, they adapted and they never missed a session over zoom and they adapted to a new way of being - they didn't give up on the choir and it really stands to them. 

The second group is the Kilcock Mens Shed Choir who are fantastic and have such an interesting story - they have gone from being complete non-singers to being bitten by the bug and have lots of incredible creative stories to tell. We have been working with these men for 7 years and it all came about because our father died while building the Kilcock mens shed. Its a beautiful story that maybe I can tell you some time. The men in this recording are from aged 65-92!! 

We recorded this ourselves with no budget and no fancy tricks - they really are inspirational and I love working with both groups!

Thanks for listening, 
Eimear Crehan
http://www.speakupsingout.ie

A Galway Blessing sung by Suso & Kilcock Men's Shed Choir

DCU Campus Choir
Musical Director - Christina Whyte
Piano - Eoin Tierney

The DCU Campus Choir comprises current and retired staff from Dublin City University. Under the direction of Christina Whyte (Chamber Choir Ireland) the choir sings a broad repertoire, from medieval to modern musicals.
The choir was formed 13 years ago and mostly performs on the Glasnevin and All Hallows' Campuses in DCU.

DCU Campus Choir - A Galway Blessing

Brief Chorus Biog:
This group consists of around 35 talented, young singers from Galway, Athenry, Gort and Tuam. They have been rehearsing individually with their directors Helen Farrell & Sinead Pokall (Athebry), Noreen McDermott & Joan O' Neill Kelly (Gort), Connie Burke (Tuam) and Mary Murphy (Tuam). The group also featured choristers from St. Nicholas' Schola Cantorum (director: Mark Duley). The group have come together under the directorship of Mark Duley for the new opera Paper Boat, and they will perform as part of the opera on 23rd April in St. Nicholas' Church in Galway conducted by Sinead Hayes.
Director Mark Duley
Pianist Ronan de Burca

Youth Chorus, Galway sings A Galway Blessing

Wicklow Parkinson's Choir is for people with Parkinsons, family members and friends. Started in 2014, the choir meets every Monday morning in the Ashford Community and Heritage Centre, led by Musical Director, Dara MacMahon. The choir is a place to come together in a community of support, positivity and fun. After a two year absence during Covid, when many cherished members and friends were lost, it is wonderful to be meeting again in person. The choir recorded A Galway Blessing at their weekly rehearsal last Monday, which happened to coincide with World Parkinson's Day on 11 April. The choir really loved the song and the experience of recording it. Thank you for the opportunity!
Dara MacMahon (conductor)

Wicklow Parkinson's Choir performs A Galway Blessing

The ‘This is Me Dementia Friendly/All Ability choir’ is based at The Music Yard, Larne Co Antrim.  The choir, founded by Alderman Gerardine Mulvenna, was set up in 2018 to provide a service for people affected by dementia, their carers, volunteers and people of all abilities. 

It has proved to be a wonderful support network and the choir has went from strength to strength, winning the Alzheimer’s Society Dementia Friendly Community of the Year Award 2019!

The choir is led by Thomas & Angela Hamilton and meets once a week for some singing, lots of fun and laughs and a wee cup of tea afterwards.  The group has only recently been able to meet in person again after the last few years of restrictions,  however we were able to continue our choir practising online via Zoom every week in the interim. 

After hearing about this wonderful project from Elaine Agnew herself  everyone was very excited to take part and most relished the opportunity to learn a ‘new’ song.  Volunteer Gemma Larkin has provided the solo parts of the song, with the choir joining in on the 1st verse and all the choruses.

We hope you enjoy it!
Many thanks for the opportunity

Thomas & Angela Hamilton

The Music Yard, Larne

This is me Dementia Friendly Choir from Larne Co Antrim

St Kieran’s Primary School Choir

St Kieran’s School Choir plays an integral role in the school’s community. It has a non-selective membership policy and the choir averages 40-50 members ranging in age from 9-11.

The choir has a reputation for its fun enthusiastic performances and its interpretation of a variety of musical genres. The Children perform regularly in school and in public within the local community. The Choir has also performed with the Ulster Orchestra at The Ulster Hall and The Waterfront Hall.

St Kieran’s School Choir has made many TV appearances and performed as part of the 5000 strong Children In Need Choir. The Choir’s achievements include runners up in UTV School Choir of the Year and two times winners of the Lisburn City School’s Choir Competition.

Choir performances have been curtailed due to the Pandemic, and we welcome this opportunity to perform for a public audience.

Kathy McKeagney (Music Co-ordinator)

St Kieran’s School Choir, Belfast  - A Galway Blessing

Medtronic Harmonics is a Galway based work choir. We are all from Medtronic Galway (Parkmore branch). Our Musical Director is Ronan DeBurca. We have been together under his direction for 6yrs.
Medtronic Harmonics were initially formed in 2013 for a charity event “Choir Factor” in aid of SCCUL Sanctuary based in Galway.

Medtronic Harmonics - A Galway Blessing (Paper Boat Opera)

We are delighted to submit a recording and a photo of the Music Generation Kilkenny’s Youth Choir (ages between 10-16yrs) for the RTÉ LYRIC FM’S call out to choirs across the country.

Here is a short description of the group. Very new indeed!

 

 

Music Generation Kilkenny’s Development Officer Sinéad Blanchfield was instrumental in setting up of the Vocal Programme for young people in Kilkenny.

The main aim of this programme is to give young people under 18 yrs of age, the opportunity in high quality vocal education and performance.

 

Due to Covid,  this began on Zoom 2020 for half of the group and the remaining joined in 2021.  As we were limited with singing through the pandemic, we offered the programme online.  Once the restrictions began to lift, we were able to take two students per session face to face.  This is still in place to date.  We have had  3 opportunities to sing outdoors during the summer/Christmas 21 and for St. Patrick’s weekend festival on the Bandstand in Kilkenny.

The group featured on Nationwide for Christmas at the Kilkenny Castle outdoors too.

This is the group’s first performance all together in an indoor venue!!!

We were delighted to have taken the opportunity to do a version of our very own of the wonderful melody The West Awake and hear it in a prayer type version.

The two music educators for this programme are Barbara Kelly and Clare Kilkenny. Clare arranged it for two-parts and Barbara provided the beautiful piano accompaniment.

The young people heard it for the first time 2 weeks ago and we decided to have a blast of it and have fun doing it in one of the local churches in Kilkenny City.

The amateur recording was done on a tablet in St. Fiachra’s Church Loughboy in Kilkenny; thanks to the parish for having us.

Generation Kilkenny’s Youth Choir (ages between 10-16yrs) - A GALWAY BLESSING

This prestigious chorus was formed in 2011 specifically to perform at what was then known as Songs for a Summer Evening.  It is made up of some of the finest singers in South Donegal, all of whom were hand-picked for their ability and skill – the depth of their ever-growing repertoire is testament to that ability.  Their first performance was of Gabriel Faure’s much-loved Requiem and has been followed in the intervening years by a wide variety of musical genres and includes works as diverse as Purcell’s Dido and Aenaes, The Beatles A Hard Day’s Night, Barber’s Agnus Dei, Boublil’s Bring Him Home and a vast array of ensemble pieces from operas including Rigoletto, Marriage of Figaro, Tosca, Carmen, among very many others.  In 2015, they commissioned Evan McGarrigle to write a four-part arrangement of Mary from Dungloe.  This favourite Donegal song has now become one of the core pieces of their repertoire, and indeed is in much demand itself as a performance piece for other choirs.                    

The Bluestack Chorale has been privileged to receive invitations to perform throughout the county; most notably in 2013 when they were invited to perform Benjamin Britten’s Hymn to St Columba at The Glebe Gallery’s retrospective of the work of artist Derek Hill.  This piece was a 1962 commission from Derek Hill to the composer, in appreciation of his home in Garten, Co. Donegal. The Bluestack Chorale was the first choir to perform this challenging work in Donegal.

Bluestack Chorale - A Galway Blessing

Olivier Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time (1941) comes into focus in this episode of Great Moments in Classical Music. Rich in the shimmering sounds of nature with its arresting bird calls, and glowing with ecstatic spiritual warmth, with texts drawn from the Biblical Book of Revelation, the Quartet was nonetheless composed in the grim setting of the German prisoner of war camp Stalag VIII-A where Messiaen was incarcerated; Messiaen premiered it there with three fellow prisoners - outdoors, and in the rain - one January day in 1941. Sandy Burnett explores the work's almost incredible story.

Great Moments in Classical Music - Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time

The Marriage of Figaro (1786) is Sandy's focus in this episode, the first great collaboration between Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Lorenzo da Ponte. The original version of the story raised both eyebrows and concerns as a dangerously seditious play in pre-Revolutionary Paris. Sandy examines how Mozart and da Ponte took eighteenth century politics out of the equation and reworked the plot into something relevant to any age: a heartfelt comedy which shows how love can make fools of us all, something brought out in different ways in modern productions.

Great Moments in Classical Music - Mozart's Marriage of Figaro

The Fourth Symphony by Piotr Tchaikovsky is Sandy Burnett's subject in this episode of Great Moments in Classical Music.  An astonishingly dramatic work written in the composer's late thirties, it's also one of those works which it's difficult to disassociate from the personal life of the composer, a man who was still reeling from the disaster of a short-lived marriage to someone entirely unsuitable.  But Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony is also a gripping work on the purely musical level too;  at a time when Austrian and German music reigned supreme right across Europe, Tchaikovsky was injecting the symphonic form with something essentially Russian, with unforgettable melodies and dazzling orchestral colour.

Great Moments in Classical Music - Tchaikovsky's Symphony No.4

To mark Cruinniú na nÓg 2020, Ireland's national day of free creativity for children and young people, we meet the musical Lawlor family who explain how they make music together during lockdown. 

“My Creative Life” is made by Grey Heron Media for RTE Jr and Creative Ireland. Subscribe to My Creative Life wherever you get your podcasts.

My Creative Life - the Lawlor Family

To mark the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland's 50th anniversary this year, Evelyn Grant talks to conductor Gearoid Grant who began his association with the orchestra 40 years ago.

Evelyn Grant's Weekend Drive | NYOI | Gearoid Grant Interview

To mark the 50th anniversary of the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland, Evelyn Grant talks to Gillian Smith about her mother Olive who founded the orchestra.

Evelyn Grant's Weekend Drive | NYOI | Gillian Smith Interview

RTÉ lyric fm is Ireland’s national classical music and arts station. It broadcasts a wide range of music from classical, opera, jazz, world and roots, traditional and contemporary, through to music from the movies, chamber music, sacred and more, as well as crafted speech programming, features, and documentaries, which assist the listener in their understanding of the music we play and the arts in Ireland and abroad.

RTÉ lyric fm

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