Doris Mary Bass was born in 1926, and is now ninety-three years old. Doris joined the Culwick Choral Society, aged fifteen, in c. 1941 and at that time she was a boarder in Mercer’s School, Palmerstown, Dublin – now the King’s Hospital School.
Doris’s music teacher at Mercer’s School was Miss Muriel Graham. Muriel was a member of the Culwick Choral Society and her students were encouraged to audition for Culwick to help them to improve their choral skills. Doris sang with Culwick for about three years while a student in Mercer’s, and later while she was engaged as an assistant teacher in the school. She left the Culwick when she went to study in Trinity College, Dublin, at the age of eighteen. She subsequently left Dublin to live abroad.
Doris, who is now known by her middle name, Mary, has fond memories of singing with Culwick in concerts in the Metropolitan Hall in Lower Abbey Street, Dublin. This very well known Dublin ‘venue’ was a favourite of the Culwick from the 1920s through to the 1970s, when the building was demolished to make way for the Irish Life Centre.
On behalf of all of us at the Culwick Choral Society we want to wish Doris a very happy birthday!