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For such a small place Northern Ireland has an amazingly high standard of choral singing and a great choir tradition.  This week’s Sing Out is the first programme in the new series celebrating those great choirs. 

This week he meets Paul Briggs, conductor of Bangor Ladies Choir and the Ballyclare Male Choir.  Renowned soprano Lesley Garrett tells about her background and how Northern Ireland has played and important part in her career.

Since retiring as Head of Music in St Malachy’s College in Belfast, Donal McCrisken has not been short of musical challenges.  He works with singers for N.I. opera and apart from his acclaimed choir Cappella Caeciliana, he also talks about the Cavehill Community Choir.

Bangor Ladies Choir                     Chariot’s Comin’   (Traditional Spiritual)

Lesley Garrett                                 Song To The Moon   (from Rusalka by Dvorak)

Bangor Ladies Choir                       Adiemus   (Karl Jenkins)

Ballyclare Male Choir                     Stout Hearted Men   (from The New Moon by Romberg)

Cappella Caeciliana                       Danny Boy   (Trad Irish arr Bob Chillcot)

Cavehill Community Choir              L’il Liza Jane   (Trad American)

Cavehill Community Choir              Mamalulu   (Trad African)

Cappella Caeciliana                       Bogoraditse   (from Vespers by Rachmaninoff)

Cappella Caeciliana                       Love Divine   (Howard Goodall)

Paul Briggs is a retired teacher, Headteacher and Director of Education, originally from Newcastle upon Tyne, currently living in Ballywalter, County Down.

He started his choral music career as a boy treble aged 11, and has sung with and directed a number of choirs of different musical genres.  For ten years Paul was the Musical Director of Lemington Male Voice Choir. Under Paul’s leadership the choir performed in many prestigious venues, both at home and abroad.  It was an exchange visit between Lemington Male Voice Choir and Bangor Ladies Choir that first brought  Paul to Northern Ireland.  As well as directing Bangor Ladies Choir and Ballyclare Male Choir, Paul engineers and produces CD recordings.

Ballyclare Male Choir, this year celebrating its 80th anniversary, is recognised as one of the leading male voice choirs in the province. It attracts its 50+ members not only from the local area but also from Newcastle, Saintfield and Belfast.

The choir has become well known throughout the British Isles and has received many accolades for its performances on radio, television and the concert platform.  It has achieved numerous successes at Festivals throughout the U.K. and Ireland and most recently in at the Wharfdale Festival of Performing Arts in Ilkley West Yorkshire where the choir won the Male Choir Competition on two occasions.

The choir has long standing associations with international choirs, in Germany,  Finland and in Norway and recently formed a new relationship with a male choir in Neuchatel Switzerland.

The 62 strong Bangor Ladies Choir continues to go from strength to strength under their Musical Director Paul Briggs. In addition to their well-established annual Charity concert at Culloden Hotel (pre-Christmas) the choir have recently performed with soprano, Lesley Garrett, and have performed with many world-renowned musicians. 

Currently they are finalising their preparations for Mayo Festival where they will compete in both the Sacred and Ladies Choir classes.

Donal McCrisken is a Belfast-based teacher and musician with many years experience as a pianist, accompanist, conductor, examiner and adjudicator.

He was for six years, head of music in St Malachy's College, Belfast (Northern Ireland's first specialist music school) and for twenty years before that he was head of music at Our Lady and St Patrick’s College, Knock.

Since 1999 he has been conductor of Cappella Caeciliana, one of Ireland's most exciting chamber choirs.  He is a qualified British and International Federation of Festivals adjudicator and is an examiner with NICEA.

He founded the Cavehill Community Choir in February 2013, a group which is open to all and numbers 140+ members on its books. Donal studies singing with Russell Smythe, one of London’s leading singing teachers, and has organised vocal workshops in Belfast with Russell and members of the British Voice Association.

The idea behind the formation of Cavehill Community Choir is to appeal to people who either have not sung in a choir before, who have not sung for some time or who have been scared off the idea of singing – a regretfully common experience!

The choir is completely inclusive – no previous experience, no audition.   Director Donal McCrisken has become very passionate about the benefits of singing, how liberating it can be and how genuinely good for the health – physical, emotional and social. So the emphasis in the choir is on fun – nobody will feel intimidated in this group.

So far 140 people have registered for membership and the average weekly attendance is around 85.  The age profile is from early 20’s to retired age and truly represents the local area. 

Cappella Caeciliana was founded on the feast of St Cecilia 1995 and has sung liturgies and concerts all over Northern Ireland as well as Italy, Germany, Austria, USA. On their American tour in 2011 they sang choral evensong at the National Cathedral in Washington DC and gave concerts to great acclaim in Philadelphia.  They have made three CD recordings and have performed on  radio and television on many occasions.  They will release their 4th CD later this year.  Cappella’s repertoire includes plainchant, great polyphonic works by Byrd, Victoria and Palestrina, music by Haydn, Mozart, Faure, Durufle and other composers up to the present day.  

Cappella has led workshops in Belfast by members of The 16 among others and in June members of the choir will travel to London to work with James MacMillan and with Harry Christophers and Eamonn Dougan of The 16.