Dublin's international choir
The Goethe Choir is delighted and honoured to be taking part in an evening of music in aid of Ukraine, being held in St. Finian’s Lutheran Church, 24 Adelaide Road, Dublin 2 at 7pm on Thursday 12 May. We will be performing a number of works from our recent concert in Christ Church cathedral in Dublin, as well as some additional pieces. The concert will also feature Cuore Chamber Choir along with other performers. All donations received will go to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
Following our resumption of normal rehearsals earlier in the year the Goethe Choir is delighted to announce a return to the Dublin concert scene after an absence of over two years with our Spring Concert for 2022, which will be taking place at 8pm on Sunday 24th April in Christ Church cathedral in Dublin. The programme will consist of a range of choral and instrumental works by composers including Bach, Eccard, Fauré and Telemann, ending in a performance of the final chorus from Bach’s glorious B minor mass – ‘Dona Nobis Pacem’ – which gives our concert its very appropriate title.
Tickets cost €20 (€15 for students and unwaged) and may be obtained via choir members or booked online via Eventbrite at https://bit.ly/3DbZneP. Tickets unsold in advance will be available for purchase at the door. Go to our website Events page for more information about the concert programme and about those taking part.
Following our recent recording of a Prayer for Ukraine (see our website blog entry for more info), three choir members – Werner Blau, David Denby and Geraldine Hynes – were invited in to the RTE Radio studios in Dublin to talk about the piece and the recording, as part of the Leap in Faith programme which was broadcast on Radio 1 on the evening of St. Patrick’s Day, March 17th.
If you’d like to hear the discussion, which is followed by our performance of the piece, go to https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/the-leap-of-faith/programmes/2022/0317/1287074-the-leap-of-faith-thursday-17-march-2022/. The item starts 33 minutes into the programme.
Like people all over the world, members of the Goethe Choir have been shocked and appalled by the brutal Russian invasion of Ukraine. During our rehearsal on 1st March, the members of the choir, directed by John Dexter, decided to learn and record Mykola Lysenko’s Prayer for Ukraine as a sign of solidarity with Ukrainian friends and colleagues, and all the Ukrainian people under siege in their own country. You can view a video of the recording here.
Please remember the suffering of the people of Ukraine when you listen to it and share with friends.
Many thanks to choir member Brian McIvor for producing the recording and the video.
Despite our disappointment in having to cancel rehearsals and our annual Christmas concert in early December due to the increasing Covid infection rates, some members of the Goethe Choir met on Sunday December 19th to sing a piece of seasonal music which was due to be sung by the choir in the cancelled concert, as it is in our Christmas concert every year – ‘Stille Nacht’ with verses in English, Irish and German.
The choir gathered in the open air on the steps of the 1937 Reading Room in Trinity College in Dublin, suitably attired for the December weather and wearing masks as a cautionary measure, which may have had an impact on the visual appearance of the choristers but in no way affected the clarity and quality of the singing. The performance can be seen and heard at https://youtu.be/qdMYGT9qtxA.
We hope to be able to perform again for an audience as soon as possible in 2022. In the meantime, happy Christmas from the Goethe Choir!
Nollaig shona! Nadolig llawen! Frohe Weihnachten!
Unfortunately, due to the serious increase in Covid infection rates in Ireland and the government advice to reduce social interaction, we have decided to cancel our planned Christmas concert on December 6th 2021 in the National Concert Hall in Dublin.
In the light of medical and other advice we determined that it would be too risky for choir members to continue with rehearsals in preparation for the concert and that it would also be unsafe for choir members and audience members alike in the concert itself. We have therefore very reluctantly decided that it would be in everyone’s best interests to cancel the concert this year. The National Concert Hall has informed us that the cost of any tickets purchased from them will be refunded in full to the account from which the online purchase was made.
We’d like to apologise to all who were looking forward to hearing us singing, but hopefully we will be able to perform live again as soon as possible in 2022.