We are delighted to have returned to live rehearsals following a year and a half of online rehearsals. It has been such a difficult time for so many people and it is so good to be back in the rehearsal room together to celebrate life through singing!
If you love to sing then we would love to have you as a member. Under the direction of our esteemed Musical Director, David Leigh, we are now preparing for our Christmas concert which will take place in Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in December.
We rehearse on Thursdays at 7.30 pm, close to the city centre. If you are interested just message us here or email our registrar: culwickregistrar@gmail.com
The Culwick Choral Society wishes all our friends a very happy and safe Easter.
On Thursday April 8 we will perform a selection of Passiontide and Easter Choruses from Handel’s Messiah in a virtual concert with our Musical Director, David Leigh. If you love to sing the Messiah why not join us on the night and sing with us! We will sing with a Culwick Choral Society backing track from a performance in St Patrick’s Cathedral. All participants will be muted so we will all be singing along with a recorded version of the Culwick Choral Society!
If you are interested in joining us please contact us at culwickregistrar@gmail.com We’d love to have you with us for some singing, community and fun!
Ian Kelly, who died on 13th January 2021, was a committed and much-loved member of the Culwick Choral Society.
Ian served as a committee member of the Society in many roles and as President from 1989-1993. Through his auspices, the Culwick rehearsed in the Presbyterian Centre in St Stephen’s Green and Merrion Square, prior to moving to Wesley House where we currently rehearse.
James Masterson, Raman Patel and Ian Kelly
One of Ian’s many contributions to the Society was his organisation of the summer singing club. Ian with his great friend, Finbar Callanan, and their wives, Ivy and the late Maureen, organised the venue, arranged for a musical director and accompanist for the club and sourced the music for the participants. Ivy and Maureen provided tea and biscuits for each rehearsal and organised food for the end of summer party. Through the efforts of Ian and Finbar new members got to know their choral colleagues and everyone greatly enjoyed those summer nights of singing.
Ian with some of his many friends.
Ian was an accomplished pianist and great organiser and leader of sing songs at every Culwick social event. Among his many talents was his ability to write comic verse which he put to music with Finbar. We were greatly entertained by both of them at every Culwick party.
After retirement, Ian continued to support the Culwick Choral Society, dropping backstage after each concert in the NCH for a chat with his colleagues. It was always such a pleasure to see him.
In 2018 The Culwick Choral Society celebrated its 120th anniversary with a party attended by current and past members. Ian was a very welcome guest on the night, met up with many old friends, and clearly enjoyed the evening reminiscing and singing with fellow choristers.
Finbar Callanan and Ian Kelly.Ian Kelly (front right) with members of the Culwick Choral Society
Magda O’Connell, who died on 5th December 2020, was a committed and much loved member of the Culwick Choral Society for 28 years. Magda joined the choir as a soprano in 1992. One of her first choral performances was in the Bach Mass in B Minor with the Irish Chamber Orchestra at the National Concert Hall in 1993, and, over the years, she enjoyed singing the great choral works, including those by Monteverdi, Mozart, Haydn, Brahms, Bach and Mendelssohn. In September 1995 she sang with the Culwick at ‘Voices of the World’ – a choral spectacular at Lansdowne Road with over 6,000 singers from around the world. The concert was broadcast by RTE that year on Christmas Eve.
From 1995 at Lansdowne Road Anne Healy, Maria McCarthy, Magda, Tess Cannon.
In 1998, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Culwick, Magda co-edited a history of the Society ‘The Culwick Choral Society Celebrates One Hundred Years 1888-1998’ which was published that year.
Magda served as a committee member of the Culwick Choral Society both as Hon sec and subsequently as President from 2004-08, and led the Society with efficiency and empathy. Magda continued through the years to quietly support the Society and one of her great informal contributions was her gentle welcome and support for new members when they first joined. Together with her commitment to the Culwick, Magda was a great supporter of choral music in Ireland and served as a Director and Company Secretary of the Irish Association of Choirs, the forerunner of Sing Ireland.
Apart from our biannual concerts in the NCH Magda supported all informal events organised by the Culwick. She greatly enjoyed our Christmas and Spring parties and always participated wholeheartedly. For many years Magda was part of the winning team in the Quartets competition.
2010 Winners of Quartets Competition – Frank Quinn (RIP), Catherine McGuinness, Magda, Eoin McAuley.
In 2018 The Culwick Choral Society celebrated its 120th anniversary with a party attended by current and past members. Magda met up with many old friends on the night and clearly enjoyed the evening reminiscing and singing with fellow choristers.
At our 120th Anniversary party in 2018 with her great friend Anne Healy.
Magda continued to sing with us, even embracing zoom rehearsals, until she became ill earlier this year. She will be greatly missed by all her friends in the Culwick Choral Society.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a h-anam dílis.
The Culwick Choral Society with President Magda O’Connell.
As we are currently unable to meet during the Covid pandemic, the Culwick Choral Society continues to rehearse online on Zoom. Our Musical Director, David Leigh, has chosen a wonderful selection of pieces for us this term. We are singing some traditional Irish songs, including a beautiful arrangement by Eoin Conway of The Parting Glass, and magnificent classical pieces like Laudate Dominum by Mozart and Te Deum by Haydn. We also intend to rehearse a number of traditional carols in the run-up to Christmas. The choir is provided rehearsal tracks for each line and sheet music, free of charge, and we use these to familiarise ourselves with our line at home. David plays through the individual soprano, alto, tenor and bass lines at the rehearsal and we all then sing through the pieces together.
If you love singing and have been thinking about joining a choir, why not join us online and sing with us, free of charge, for a few weeks.
For further information contact: culwickregistrar@gmail.com
Unfortunately, we have had to postpone our Spring concert. We want to wish all our members, sponsors, friends, supporters, and audiences the best of health. Stay safe and we are looking forward to a time soon when we will all enjoy wonderful music together again.
The Culwick Choral Society presents a dynamic and varied programme in its spring concert, the first under the baton of David Leigh. The vocal and compositional virtuosity of Bach’s well-loved Magnificat contrasts perfectly with the pleasing textures and enticing rhythms of Roth’s A Time to Dance, composed as a companion work to the Bach, which receives its Irish première.
We are pleased to announce that David Leigh has been appointed Musical Director of Culwick Choral Society. David is a highly accomplished Musician and currently the Organist at St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, where, in addition to presiding at the Willis organ, he runs the Schola (Senior Girls’ Choir). He is also Musical Director of the University of Dublin Choral Society and of the chamber choir the Gaudete Singers. He also maintains a busy freelance career as a choral and orchestral conductor and keyboard player, and is currently Artistic Director of the Pipeworks Festival. David was educated at Bolton School, Lancashire and Oxford University and is also a prize-winning Fellow of the Royal College of Organists. He moved to Dublin in 1997.
Do you love to sing? The Culwick Choral Society is recruiting new members. For over 120 years the Culwick Choral Society has maintained an unbroken tradition of music-making in Dublin. The choir sings the classical choral works as well as premiering new compositions each year and we perform regularly in the National Concert Hall. We rehearse every Thursday from 7.30pm between September and the end of May in Wesley House, Leeson Park, Dublin 6. Sight-reading is an advantage but is not necessary as practice CDs are available
If you are interested in joining, why not come along to our open night at Wesley House on Thursday 16th January 2020 or any Thursday night. You can simply try out a rehearsal and then complete an audition at a later date. Alternatively you can call our registrar, Donal Ahern at 087 2222473, or email: culwickregistrar@gmail.com with your phone number and we’ll be happy to call you back for a chat.
Olive Smith – A Musical Visionary, written by the subject’s daughter, Gillian Smith, tells the life story of Olive Smith, founder of the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland, and surveys the history of the development of classical music in Ireland in the second half of the 20th century. Olive became a member of the Culwick Choral Society in about 1930. Olive was involved in 1948 in the foundation of the Music Association of Ireland. Also on its executive committee was Edgar Deale, a long term member of the Culwick Choral Society and a former president. One of the aims of the association was to work for the establishment of a National Concert Hall. Published by Somerville Press this book would make a great Christmas present for the music lover in your life.
Our Musical Director, Bernie Sherlock, conducted her last concert with the Culwick Choral Society at the National Concert Hall on Thursday 5th December 2019. The concert was very well received with a standing ovation at the end, a fitting tribute to a great director.
Bernie has been at the heart of the Culwick Choral Society for the past 12 years and we were honoured to have had her as a Musical Director. She leaves us with a proud legacy.
Bernie has a well-deserved reputation in Ireland and, indeed, abroad. We greatly appreciate her contribution to the Culwick Choral Society and wish her even greater success in the future.
