You've reached the Home of
The Cloughmore Male Voice Choir
Welcome / Fáilte
The Christmas Wassail presented by the Choir in the City Hall, Newry, on the 9th of December was first class entertainment,from the wine and Christmas fayre at the start, to the finale of the choir and soloist singing " O Holy Night".
The guest Soprano, Helen Hutchinson from Dublin has a beautiful voice mellow and fluid.She entertained with arias from Puchini and Verdi, followed by two songs Glendum and Marias Wiegelied. After interval she sang "Rejoice" from Messiah and "Poor Wandering One" from the Pirates of Penzance delighting the audience with her sweet assured handling of the intricate runs.
The Flutes of Mourne were the guest intrumentalists. They opened with a typical flute march, and followed this with " Some Enchanted Evening" and a beautiful rendering of " Silent Night" and " You Raised Me Up" They played a range of flutes from a piccolo to an enormous flute which produced rich base notes. Their rendering of " Nearer My God To Thee" was special, beginning with a solo flute and building the harmonies as the one by one, the other instruments joined in. Their drummer and spokesman was very humorous with the introductions. They finished with an American march medley containing tunes like " John Brown's Body" and " Dixie", featuring some marvellous piccolo playing.
Read More...
[ view entry ] ( 1029 views ) | [ 0 trackbacks ] | permalink
The Gala Summer Concert was held on 10th June in the Newry City Hall,
to bid farewell to Colette Hart Lavery our musical director, who retires after 25 Years of dedicated service to the Choir.
The Guest Soloist for the evening was David Martin (Tenor)who performed a beautiful programme well suited to his voice. From Light Opera he sang "You Are My Heart's Desire"and "Vienna City Of My Dreams"and the more modern song "Bring Him Home" from Les Miserables. In the second half of the evening he treated the audience to two romantic Neopolitan songs "Come Back To Sorrento" and " O Solo Mio" which he rendered in Italian. For the final number he sang " Nessan Dorma"with the Choir backing him and the audience erupted Cheers and foot stamping.
Patrick Coyle the accompanist for the Choir, had the piano moved out on to the stage and gave a recital of subdued gentle music. Rachmaninoff's "Prelude in G flat" was very delicate and pensive. The piece by Liszt was subtitled "Forest Murmurs" followed by his own compositions "Sunrise On Annamakerrig Lake"ending with Chopin's "Polonaise in A". Patrick brilliance and shy manner has endeared him to the Cloughmore audience.
Read More...
[ view entry ] ( 857 views ) | [ 0 trackbacks ] | permalink
The Cloughmore Male Voice Choir is celebrating another milestone in its remarkable history. Colette Hart-Lavery has completed twenty five years as musical director, a wonderful example of voluntary service. She was at the beginning of her teaching career when one of her pupils told her that her father sang in a male voice choir and that they needed a new musical director. Colette agreed to fill the vacancy and found herself with a choir somewhat depleted in numbers.
She built up the membership and still in keeping with the traditions of the choir introduced new music to the repertoire. Her expert choral teaching and her thoroughness paid off bringing renewed life to the choir. Under her direction there were two concerts a year, a CD called “Reflections”, performances with top class soloists and with other choirs. There were engagements to sing at many different venues, the most prestigious being at Aras An Uachtarain official residence of President Mary McAleese in Dublin.
Colette is leaving the choir to pursue her studies and we wish her well. She will be greatly missed by the choir and her audience of faithful fans who looked forward to the concerts at Christmas and in the Summer.
The “Gala Concert” on Wednesday 10th June will be a celebration of her accomplishment over twenty five years with the Choir.
[ view entry ] ( 915 views ) | [ 0 trackbacks ] | permalink
Avatar
