Athy Choir Extravaganza in aid of cancer and FND charities

Athy Choral Fusion, a local choir, is hosting a choral concert in Scoil Phadraig Naofa, Athy, on Friday, September 25 at 7.30pm.

It promises to be a wonderful musical evening with some very accomplished choirs and a special guest appearance by Paul Linehan, a renowned tenor with a

remarkable voice. Athy Choral Fusion is being joined on the night by The Castlecomer Male Voice Choir, The Baldonnel Singers and the wonderful school choir of Scoil Phadraig Naofa. The repertoires of each choir are varied and very exciting.

The Castlecomer Male Voice choir was formed in 1984 and, as such is the longest formed choir who will be performing on the night. They are a community based choir and their musical directors are James Rice and Leah McCafferty. They are known for hosting the “Where Voices Meet Roots” Summer event in the Castlecomer Discovery Park. They also participate in local and regional church and community events, often raising much needed funds for charity. They have an upcoming concert in Kilkenny Cathedral on Saturday 3 October where they will be singing and collaborating with a beautiful choir from Wales so watch out for that event.

The Baldonnel Singers were founded in 2003 and their membership is based around Kildare and Dublin. They perform classical, operatic and contemporary music. Their Musical Director is David Lanigan and their accompanist is Maire Mannion. They frequently collaborate with special artists such as Paul Linehan, Celine Byrne and local military bands. They have performed at Landsdowne Road, The National Concert Hall, The Mansion House, Farmleigh House and at many State official events. Over the years, they have raised much needed funds for many different charities. Athy man, Joe Crowley, is a long established member of this choir.

Athy Choral Fusion was founded in 2015 and is a four part harmony community choir based in Athy. It draws its membership from Kildare, Laois, Kilkenny and the surrounding areas. Their Musical Director is Eileen Doyle and their accompanist is Aidan Farrell, both of whom taught in Athy all of their teaching careers. According to Eileen, they started out with roughly 23 members but in the last year the numbers have doubled. New members are always welcome, especially men, as they seem to be a scarce commodity! Their repertoire is a mixture of sacred and secular music. Notable performances for Athy Choral Fusion include live broadcasts on RTE for Sunday Morning Worship, Singing at Christchurch Cathedral, The Rock of Cashel and the Sligo Choral Festival. Their most recent performances were at “Where Voices Meet Roots” in Castlecomer and the Lughnasa Festival at the Irish National Stud and Gardens.

They have collaborated with the Castlecomer Male Voice Choir for Christmas choral events. In this choir we share fun, friendship and a love of music. Eileen maintains that the happiness and wellbeing of our choir is our priority and beautiful music is a bonus.

Scoil Phadraig Naofa school choir trains for the Peace Proms each year and as such learns a varied repertoire which appeals to the young students. They have performed with over 2,000 students at the RDS where all of the children sing the same songs. Their Musical Directors are Sharon Morrissey and Jennifer Clifford and their Principal Mr Willie O Gorman is keen to make sure that all of the children in his school are offered a wide educational experience during their time there. Hopefully, their experience during their early school days will encourage these young people to join choirs as adults and thereby continue sharing the beauty of choral music.

Paul Linehan is a renowned, famous tenor originally from Cork but now living in Kildare. He is classically trained and his repertoire includes arias from the Grand Operas, operettas, sacred music and songs from musical theatre. He also sings popular drawing room ballads and songs from the Irish Tradition. In the past few years, Paul has performed shows in memory of Josef Locke and celebrated the Great Irish tenors such as Percy French and Thomas Moore. Paul is always sought after for local concerts too and people love to listen to his beautiful voice. He is extremely generous with his time and talent and Cork’s loss is definitely Kildare’s gain.

Apart from bringing beautiful choral music to the town of Athy, Eileen’s other reason for hosting this concert is to raise much needed funds for two very worthy charities.

“One is for Cancer as there is no home left untouched by this illness. In fact, in the last two years two of our members have bravely gone through treatment and are heroes in my eyes. The other charity is FND, or Functional Neurological Disorder. Many, many people are affected by this condition even though very little is known about it,” said Eileen.

“It is a condition whereby there is a problem with how the brain sends and receives signals to the rest of the body. It has recently obtained charity status and it is something that I feel passionate about supporting, as I was diagnosed with this myself a few years ago.”

Tickets are available on Eventbrite, locally in Winkle’s shop and from any of the members of Athy Choral Fusion at a cost of €20 each.