An Cosantóir

4 NOTICEBOARD NOTICEBOARD BALDONNEL CHOIR Baldonnel Singers is a four part, Male Voice Choir with members drawn mainly from the North Kildare / South Dublin areas currently. We are one of Ireland's leading male voice choirs, winners of the RTE Lyric FM Carols for Christmas in 2018, and have performed at many high- profile national and international events. We meet once a week for rehearsals, on Tuesday evenings, 8 – 10pm during the season, which runs from September each year to May the following year. The choir has had a long association with the Defence Forces in Ireland since it's foundation nearly 20 years ago. Our membership is drawn from all walks of life, and all age groups, from twentysomethings to retirees, with one common denominator – we love to sing! Many of our founder members were drawn from the Air Corps in Baldonnel, where we rehearse, by kind permission of the GOC, and from which we take our name. We also have members from the army, both from the Curragh and from Dublin based barracks. We were very proud to perform for the President and the Defence Forces at commemoration ceremonies and Christmas concert festivities at Arbour Hill, and for both the Air Corps and Army at various locations throughout the years. We describe ourselves as first and foremost a performance choir, we don't enter choral competitions as such, and much prefer to be judged by our audiences. We derive great pleasure in learning popular songs from a wide range of genres: classical, light opera, musical theatre and film, in addition to international folk songs, popular music and of course Irish ballads and traditional airs. We like to target two or three performances per year at various locations around Ireland, and usually link up with a local charity or community group as part of a local fund raising concert. We also love to perform at Christmas time, and have a good repertoire of both religious and seasonal favourites, which we add to each year. In addition to rehearsals and performances, the group enjoys a vibrant social programme involving social evenings in local hotels, pubs and restaurants, weekend breaks involving a mix of tourism, sport (golf, hill walking etc) and the inevitable sing-song evening, often with local choirs we may have encountered on our journeys. The highlight of our social calendar involves a bi-annual tour to an international festival or concert event. We have attended events in Barcelona, in Prague and most recently in Santigo de Compestella. So if you have a reasonable singing voice and would like to give choral singing a try, then why not take the first step and contact us by email at balmalechoir@gmail. com and we will take it from there. We are conducting open auditions for new members for our next season which commences in September, 2021. Website: http://baldonnelsingers.ie/ By Col Sean O'Keeffe (Retd) Photos provided by Col Sean O'Keeffe (Retd) Picture taken with President Mary McAleese and her husband Martin following the Defence Forces Christmas event at Arbour Hill in 2010 The choir performed for the public while on tour in Prague in 2017

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