Dublin's international choir
The Esker Festival Orchestra and Choir will be performing Mahler’s 2nd Symphony in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin at 8pm on Sunday evening August 20th. There is still an opportunity for tenors and basses to join the choir for this one-off performance. For more information and to register to take part, go to www.eskerfestivalorchestra.com.
The Goethe Choir gave its summer concert for 2023 on Sunday afternoon 28th May in St. Ann’s church, Dawson Street, Dublin. An appreciative audience heard a performance of a range of works from multiple countries and musical periods, reflecting the coming of summer. These included an arrangement of the Irish song ‘Thugamar Féin an Samhradh Linn’ by choir member Mary Kelly, and a first performance of a work by another choir member, Werner Blau. We were conducted by our musical director John Dexter. The concert also featured violinist David O’Doherty, who joined the choir in performing the final item on the programme, Haydn’s motet ‘Insanae et Vanae Curae’, with John Dexter accompanying on the organ and Mary Kelly conducting. Go to the Gallery page on our website to seem some photos of the event.
There will be another opportunity to hear the choir singing when we will be taking part in the ‘United in Music’ concert in St. Finian’s Lutheran Church, Adeilade Road, Dublin 2 at 7pm on Wednesday 14 June, 2023. This will be an evening of music in support of refugees worldwide – all donations made at this concert will go to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
Former Goethe-Institut Choir member Iris Taylor was in the audience for our recent performance of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion in the Church of St. Thérèse, Mount Merrion, Dublin which prompted her to write and broadcast a piece about the work and about our performance of it. You can read her thoughts via this link.
Iris was one of the first members of the Goethe-Institut Choir, which she has written about in her recently published ‘Memoirs of a Reluctant German‘. She continued singing until the 1990s when she dropped out because of illness but has always been a keen supporter. She now lives mostly in Clifden, co. Galway.
If you would like to see a slideshow containing photos from the concert with a backing track of our performance of the final chorus from the work, go to the Gallery page on our website.
Our summer concert will be taking place at 3pm on Sunday 28th May in St. Ann’s Church, Dawson Street, Dublin. We will be presenting a multilingual musical journey through Europe visiting Ireland, England, Holland, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, and Russia including choral and instrumental favourites by Johann Sebastian Bach, Anton Bruckner, William Byrd, Joseph Haydn, Heinrich Isaac, Thomas Morley, Orlando di Lasso, Henry Purcell, Igor Stravinsky and others.
The choir will be conducted by our musical director John Dexter and we will be joined by violin soloist David O’Doherty. Join us for an uplifting and joyful celebration of the arrival of summer.
Admission is €15 at the door.
Our recent performance of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion in the Church of St. Thérèse, Mount Merrion, Dublin was hugely successful and was enthusiastically received with a standing ovation by a large and appreciative audience, after over 3 hours of wonderful music. Congratulations to all the performers and to all those involved in organising the concert, but especially to our music director John Dexter for guiding us so successfully through a challenging but highly rewarding musical experience.
We have received much positive feedback to our performance since the concert, including the following from our Evangelist, Dustin Drosdziok, prior to his return to Germany: “I enjoyed the concert very much and had the impression that there was real and honest commitment from everyone involved. It was a great performance. I wish you all the best and many more beautiful concerts.”
If you would like to see a slideshow containing photos from the concert with a backing track of our performance of the final chorus from the work, go to the Gallery page on our website.
The choir is working hard in preparation for our upcoming performance of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion in the Church of St. Thérèse, Mount Merrion, Dublin at 7pm on Sunday, February 26th. We’re all looking forward to having a rare opportunity to sing this wonderful work to a large and appreciative audience.
During the performance, the audience will be invited to join in the singing of the melody line for five of the chorales, a practice which was common in Bach’s time. You can see and hear us rehearsing one of these chorales at https://youtu.be/F0mLUoUCKzU – the text of the chorale is displayed on the video, so if you wish you can take the opportunity to get in some pre-concert practice by joining in the singing.
Tickets, priced €30 (€25 concessions), may be purchased online via this link.