News

As the choir is currently unable to meet physically during the Covid-19 emergency, we are continuing with our weekly rehearsals online.  In conjunction with this, we are inviting anyone with an interest in choral singing to take part in our online rehearsals this autumn/winter.  There will be no audition process and all are invited to join in free of charge.

Weekly rehearsals take place at 7.30 every Tuesday evening through a series of bespoke videos devised and filmed exclusively for the Goethe Choir by conductor John Dexter, with links to the videos circulated in advance by email.

Each video explores a selected piece of music with John taking Sopranos, Altos, Tenors and Basses through their lines (and their paces) in a dynamic choral session with at-home choristers actively singing along under his instruction, and with his accompaniment. Warm up videos from well known guest experts also feature as part of the Tuesday night fun.  This season’s programme includes William Byrd’s Ave Verum Corpus and Bach’s Magnificat.

Anyone who is interested in taking part is invited to register via our website at goethechoir.ie/join-us-online.

After an enforced break since our last rehearsal in early March this year, the Goethe Choir had planned to resume Tuesday evening rehearsals at the beginning of September at our normal rehearsal venue in the Lutherhaus, Adeilade Road in Dublin.  Unfortunately, due to the ongoing restrictions in place due to the Covid-19 emergency, getting together for rehearsals will not be possible for the foreseeable future.  The choir committee is currently putting in place a plan of action to resume physical rehearsals as soon as conditions permit, involving implementation of all the appropriate safeguards and procedures that will be required.

In place of our normal rehearsals, the choir will instead be undertaking online rehearsals every Tuesday evening under the leadership of our musical director John Dexter.  John will be directing the rehearsal remotely via video recordings to individual members in their own homes, which will be followed by an online Zoom session in real time to allow feedback from members and enable some social interaction.

We had planned to hold our annual Christmas concert in the National Concert Hall (NCH) in Dublin in early December, but as the NCH has announced that it will be closed until the end of the year, this concert has had to be cancelled.  The major work to be performed in this concert was J.S.Bach’s Magnificat.  However, we will be rehearsing this work online over the coming months (in addition to other works) and look forward to being able to give a public performance of it with audience some time in 2021.   Details of our performances next year will be released as soon as conditions allow us to go ahead and make plans to resume our concert activity.

In the meantime, the choir will continue its musical development under the guidance of our musical director John Dexter as best we can and hope that we will be able to get back together again to rehearse and perform in public as soon as possible.