Bray Choral Society

Bray Choral Society

Aidan Kelly

Meet and Greet – 20th August 7.30pm – New members welcome

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Do you like to sing? Do you want to improve your health? Would you like to make new friends? Be brave, check us out.

Come along to Bray Choral Society’s open evening in the Martello Hotel, Bray Seafront, on Tuesday 20th August. Call in anytime between 7.30 and 9.30pm to find out more and talk to members about their experience of being a member of the choir. No singing required on the night. All over 18s welcome.  Do not worry if you cannot read music, many existing members do not, as we provide learning tracks to use alongside the score. 

We rehearse each Tuesday evening from 7.30 – 9.30pm in St Kilian’s School, Boghall Road, Bray, during school term time. We sing a wide variety of choral works, from classical to contemporary. In February 2019, we performed the Irish premiere of Howard Goodall’s ‘Invictus A Passion’ in both Dublin and Bray, and these choir members have been invited to premiere the work again in New York’s Carnegie Hall in 2020! 

The Society performs at least two concerts a year, Christmas and early summer, and holds various social evenings and events. We like to travel also, and most recently members participated in the Prague Summer Choral Meeting in early August.

We look forward to seeing you on the 20th August, you can find us on Facebook. Go on try us out, no commitment required until you are happy to join us.

Summer Concert – 18th May

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Saturday 18th May, Church of the Most Holy Redeemer, Main Street, Bray.  8.00pm. Tickets €20 (€15 concession).

Tickets available from Eventbrite, choir members or at the door on the night.

Once again Bray Choral Society will perform a summer concert in May, lead by our musical director Frank Kelly.  Two works will be featured this year.  The well known Mozart Requiem, a choral masterpiece shrouded in mystery.  Composed in part by Mozart in the final year of his life.  Also the less well known Mass in B flat by Johann Hummel, fellow student and friend of Beethoven.  Exaltation, excitement and exhilaration are words that have been used to describe Hummel’s mass compositions.

The soloists for the concert will be Sarah Power (soprano), Gina Oberoi (alto), Andrew Gavin (tenor) and John Molloy (bass).

The Degani Orchestra, leader Alan Smale, will once again perform the orchestration for both works.

These two contrasting works will make for a very interesting and absorbing concert.  Do come along you will not be disappointed.

Irish Premiere – Howard Goodall’s ‘Invictus: A Passion’- Feb 9th and 10th

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Bray and Wicklow Choral Societies will perform the Irish premiere of Howard Goodall’s new work – ‘Invictus: A Passion’ on Saturday 9th February at 8.15pm in St. Andrew’s Church in Westland Row. Soloists are soprano Sarah Power and tenor Ross Scanlon. Tickets €20 available from Eventbrite – Westland Row or at the door on the night.

Mr Goodall will attend the Irish premiere of ‘Invictus: A Passion’ and will introduce the work to the audience.

‘Invictus: A Passion’ is a musical retelling of the passion of Jesus Christ. The work is unusual in that the story is told from the perspective of women using texts written by women. It describes human suffering and persecution, but also the transformative power of love in the face of tyranny.

Howard Goodall CBE is one of Britain’s best known composers. His choral masterpiece ‘Eternal Light: A Requiem’ has been performed by hundreds of choirs all over the world since its premiere in 2008. He has written scores for many films and television programmes, such as the ‘Mr Bean’ series, ‘The Vicar of Dibley’ and ‘Blackadder’. He is a regular presenter of television programmes on music. He was Britain’s first ever ambassador for singing from 2007-2011.

Bray and Wicklow Choral Societies, under the musical direction of Mr Frank Kelly, are choirs with a long tradition of performing works from the classical and modern choral repertoire. Wicklow Choral Society performed the Irish premiere of Howard Goodall’s ‘Eternal Light: A Requiem’ in 2010.

The work will be performed a second time by the choirs on Sunday 10th February at 8.00pm in the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer, Main St., Bray. Tickets €15 available from Eventbrite – Bray , at the door on the night, or from a choir member.