Aidan Kelly

Bray Choral Society are honoured to have been asked to collaborate in this County Wicklow performance on Saturday 5th November in the National Concert Hall.  Featured choirs from around County Wicklow include: Bray Choral Society, Wicklow Choral Society, West Wicklow Voices, Get Vocal Choirs and the children of the Holy Rosary National School from Wicklow Town.

Wicklow County Arts Office in association with the RTE National Symphony Orchestra present a world premiere of ‘Mary Gordon’, a new oratorio for massed choirs, solo vocalists, narrator and symphony orchestra.  This is a major new choral commission where events of 1916 intertwine with folklore and the mythology of Blessington Lakes in County Wicklow.

With music by Brian Irvine and Neil Martin, author Marina Carr has created a gothic folklore about a 1916 love story and the flooding of the Poulaphouca Reservoir in Blessington as the basis for this oratorio.

Conducted by Fergus Shiel (Opera Theatre Company), narrated by Sean McGinley with soprano Sarah Power and Tenor Gerard Schneider.

Tickets: €20 (concession €18) from the National Concert Hall, 01 417 0000 or www.nch.ie.  Early bird price of 15 up to 15th October using promo code ‘Early Bird’.

This season is a milestone season for Bray Choral Society as it is 30 years since Frank Kelly founded the society with a small group of enthusiastic singers.  The society has grown since then and has had many successful performances.

This season is no exception and we hope that you will join the society in its 30th Anniversary celebrations by attending our Gala Summer Concert.  The programme includes Gounad’s Messe Solennelle de Saint Cécile; Bizet’s Te Deum and a number of opera choruses.  This will be a joyous concert with plenty of French pomp and circumstance and the choir will be accompanied by long term associates the Degani Sinfonia led by Alan Smale.

The soloists for the concert will also be singers who have performed with the choir on a number of occasions.  Soprano: Sarah Power, Tenor: Ross Scanlon and Bass: John Molloy.

The concert takes place in the Church of the Most Holy Redemeer, Main Street, Bray on Saturday 14th May at 8pm.

Tickets: €20 (€16 concessions) from a choir member or on the door.