Wexford choir to pay homage to late members with concert in Enniscorthy church
Taking place on Thursday, May 29, inside St Mary's Church Enniscorthy, the choir will be joined by special guest performers Emer Barry and Eve Donohoe.
Emer, a talented soprano who has travelled the world, has frequently joined the RTÉ Orchestra for a number of performances as well as having spent time in the United States touring in a show put together by Columbia Arts Management.
Despite only being 19 years of age, violinist Eve Donohoe has multiple national awards under her belt and is currently studying Medicine in Trinity College Dublin as she is passionate about the intersection between music and medicine in a clinical setting.
Making sure everything does smoothly is experienced director Eithne Corrigan, a graduate of Trinity College who studied piano and violin at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in her native Dublin.
Member Rosemary Walshe said that they are confident in their performance with Eithne at the helm.
'She is just fantastic and so patient – we don't know how she doesn't throttle us most of the time. She insists that we learn the lyrics without the music which is a bit of a struggle, but that means our heads won't be in our books on the night. It is good for the brain as well,' she said.
The choir must be doing something right as many of the members are in their seventies and eighties, with their oldest member Liam being 91 years of age.
"We have some amazing people here and it is reflected in the Bealtaine festival saying 'creativity as we age.''
However, over the years since the choir was established, a number of members have sadly passed away and they plan to dedicate a section of their performance in their memory.
"Most of our repertoire will be well-known and fan-favourites, but we will have one section for the members who have left us. There is one song in particular that will be very poignant,' she explained.
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This year, their concert will also be donating any money raised to the Hope Cancer Support Centre and Relay For Life Wexford, for personal reasons.
"We tend to always choose a cancer charity as there are some members who are battling cancer and the centre is a badly needed service. Someone also wanted to choose Relay For Life so we just decided to split what is raised between the two.'
They hope to raise as much money as possible with tickets still available, for a cost of €15. There will be tickets for sale on the door and donation buckets, so members of the audience are encouraged to bring cash as there will be no card reader available.
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