Song season returns for Mullingar Choral Society
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The Mullingar Choral Society during their rehearsal at All Saints Church. Thomas GibbonsImage 2 of 12
Cora Sharry from Ballinalack and Anne M Dunne from Mullingar. Thomas GibbonsImage 3 of 12
Denise Pantrey from Multyfarnham and Amanda Cribben from Mullingar. Thomas GibbonsImage 4 of 12
Dervila McGirr and Margaret Allen at the rehearsal. Thomas GibbonsImage 5 of 12
John O’Reilly, Patrick Pilkington, Stephen Kellegher and Charlie Caton from Mullingar Choral Society. Thomas GibbonsImage 6 of 12
Pauline Tormey from Bunbrosna and Phil Coghlan from Mullingar. Thomas GibbonsImage 7 of 12
Muire Courtney Earley, Dawn Harmon and Geraldine Kellegher at All Saints Church for the first rehearsal of the new season. Thomas GibbonsImage 8 of 12
Chris Sheridan and Gilbert Rooney last Tuesday evening. Thomas GibbonsImage 9 of 12
Aoife Ryan (Mullingar), Amanda Rowden (Rochfortbridge), and Toff Andersen (Mullingar). Thomas GibbonsImage 10 of 12
Fintan Farrelly, musical director. Thomas GibbonsImage 11 of 12
Noelle Bannon with Rev Ian Horner (Mullingar Union of Parishes). Thomas GibbonsImage 12 of 12
Therese Clarke, Ned Comerford and Kieran Gaine before the Mullingar Choral Society rehearsal at All Saints Church last week. Thomas GibbonsMullingar Choral Society is one of the town’s longest established cultural institutions. It’s a community-based not for profit choir, and with up to 70 singers, the choir is one of the largest in the country. Members are ordinary men and women who turn in extraordinary performances year after year.
Founded as a concert choir in 1968, the first public performance was the Fauré requiem conducted by Fr Frank McNamara in 1969. In the following years, the membership expanded and the choir performed in Mullingar, Navan, Maynooth, and Sligo.
“Rehearsals start tonight,” choir member Cora Sharry told the examiner last Tuesday as the group prepared for another season of song.
Cora hopes new members will be welcomed to participate in one of Mullingar’s most enduring cultural pursuits in the coming weeks: “We are not an auditioned choir. If you want to come and join, you can just turn up to any rehearsal and introduce yourself to one of the committee members.
“We rehearse on Tuesday evenings from September to March.
Anyone who comes along will have great fun. You don’t have to be able to read music and you will get plenty of support,” Cora said.
Mullingar Choral Society is known for the consistently high standards of performance over many years. At the head of the choir is an accomplished musical professional: “Our musical director is Fintan Farrelly, he’s from Longford. He’s been with us for many years now. We missed him the last two years, but he’s back with us now and we’re delighted.”
The rehearsal process leads to a specific goal: “We usually perform two concerts. First is our Christmas Concert, in early December.
“Our second concert is our Spring Summer concert, which usually takes place in April or May. We do have cut-off dates for taking part in performances, so if a budding chorister wants to sing in the next concert, it might be worth contacting a committee member first.”
The choir has a diverse songbook: “It’s mostly classical choral music for the spring concert.
For the Christmas concert, we have a bit of everything. There is a real Christmassy atmosphere to that show.”
The rehearsal venue is All Saints Church. The warm-up starts at 7.15pm, and full rehearsals start promptly at 7.30pm, finishing up at 9.30pm.
“We are a social group, that is an important part of what we do. We have a bit of tea and a few biccies halfway through and a bit of catch-up,” Cora said.