Bealtaine Party Tuesday May 6th

We are going to a party! The Bealtaine Tea Party is in library spaces all over the country next Tuesday May 6th. we will sing some songs and listen to some others, have a cuppa and a chat. Details are in Johnston Central Library

Sacred Songs and Sounds at the Cathedral in Cavan

We are preparing for our end of season concert. This year we are inviting you to join us in the Cathedral of SS. Patrick & Felim in Cavan town, at 8pm on Tuesday May 13th. As well as singing our own repertoire with our Musical Director Eileen Tackney and our choir soloists, we will present as our guest musicians the organist Simon Harden, and the organ scholars from St Patrick's College, Cavan.

Our program of song for 2025 includes classical, pastoral, and traditional spiritual pieces, from the dreaming of Rutter, Larson, and Fauré to the drama of Orff, Mozart, Handel, Verdi, and more. 

Tickets can be purchased in person from Cavan Gifts on Main St., or online via the Town Hall Arts Centre website at https://townhallartscentre.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/shows/1173663990 

As with all our concerts, all proceeds [after costs] are donated to charity.

Cavan Singers featured as ARTS+HEALTH Case Study

Cavan Singers are delighted to be featured as ARTS+HEALTH Case Study for April 2025.

About Arts+Health

artsandhealth.ie is the national website for arts and health in Ireland. It is the central information and support hub for artists, arts professionals, healthcare communities and researchers working or interested in the field of arts and health who believe that the arts have a key role to play in healthcare provision and hope to inspire our visitors with leading examples of arts and health practice in Ireland and beyond. It is is managed by Réalta, the National Resource Organisation developing Arts and Health in Ireland, with the support of an Editorial Panel. The site is funded by the Arts Council of Ireland and the HSE (Health Service Executive), the public healthcare system in the Republic of Ireland. The website publishes Case Studies that showcase examples of diverse arts and health projects characterised by clear artistic vision, goals and outcomes ... the diversity of artforms, contexts, partnerships and structures gives an insight into the full range of arts and health practice across Ireland.

Cavan Singers Case Study 

Cavan Singers are delighted to be the subject of the Arts and Health Case Study published in April 2024. This highlights both the contribution that singing together has made to individual members of our choir, and the contibution that our choir as a collective has made to our community in the forty years since we were founded. The findings survey of our memebr carried out in 2024 are presented in the context of those forty years we have been singing together. You can read it, and all case studies logged since 2011, here, and you can watch our presentation in the. Johnstone Central Library here. It is nice to think that the video taken by the late Brian Daly, who was so generous with his time and talent on our behalf, is now linked to this Arts & Health website.

Our thanks to Emma Eager, the Project Coordinator for the National Website for Arts and Health in Ireland, for her assitance and guidance in presenting our Case Study.

Link to the Arts and Health Case Study: https://www.artsandhealth.ie/case-studies/cavan-singers-celebrating-forty-years-of-community-singing/ 

Link to Brian Daly's video of our 40th Anniversary Celebration: https://vimeo.com/916443571 

Go go go Sue (and company!)

 

Cavan Institute gave us all a treat this week with a marvelous production of Joeslph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Our own Sue Donohoe was Musical Director of the production (and orchestra conductor on the night) and some of our Cavan Singers were in the singing chorus. Acting, singing, choreography, music, staging were all a delight. It was lovely to see the entire Cavan Instiute involved in the production. Definitely a treat for the audience, a lot of whom seemed to know every word! It was also good to see the enjoyment of the younger folk who were seeing this show for the first time. A huge thank you to all involved.

A Christmas Recital in aid of Cuan

We are delighted to be taking part in a Christmas Recital on Dec 16th in aid of Cuan Cancer Support in Cavan.

We will sing with Cavan Sinfonia, Cavan Youth Orchestra, Martina Lee Boyle, Fr Darragh Connolly, and Don Mescal.

All ticket, time, and venue details are on the Eventbrite site

Cavan Singers at LisbonSings2024 festival

 

We arrived in Lisbon VERY early on Thursday Nov 7th. We settled in, had a late lunch (where we happened upon the Hungarian ladies and Zimbabwean children's choirs), we wandered and rested and found our bearings around the Masa Hotel in the Gran Campo area of the city. In the evening at Aula Magna of the nearby University was the Opening Cenromony and Concert, where several of the choirs from all over the world sang for us and each other. The venue was very close to the hotel, and we could walk back and forth over our few days there.

On Friday we went on a bus tour of the city which gave us a taste of the sights we would return to over our few days there. Then we shared lunch together near the old bullring, and strolled back to the hotel. Later Friday we rehearsed back at the hotel with our musical director Eileen Tackney, and walked together to the venue for out first performance. This was in a "Friendship Concert". Four choirs (from Portugal, Austria, Ireland, and Brazil) sang three pieces each, and in between these, each judge took a turn leading the audience in learning and singing a song from their culture - Slovenia, Norway, and Portugal. We were the final choir to sing, and it seemed well received by the audience, especially our own supporters - it was great to look out from the stage and see the tricolour aloft in the auditorium! Our pieces for this performance were

• Cantar [Althouse]
• Siul a Ruin  [Trad. arr McGlynn] (Solo: Martina Lee Boyle, Descant: Áine Duffy)
• The Rhythm of Life [Coleman & Fields]

> front row: Orla O'Sullivan, Mary O'Connor, Aedine Browne, Mags Amond, Brian Derham, Brian McGill, Eileen Tackney, Dermot McMonagle, Terry O'Connor, Liz Murray, Priscilla Gorman, Áine Duffy, Martina Lee Boyle, Pauline Brady

> middle row: Phyllis McMonagle, Rachael Cullivan Elliot, Carmel Gaffney, Carmel Lewis, Clare Crowe, Mary Lou O'Reilly, Kevin O'Connor, Brian McKeever, Claire Finlay, Rita Cullen, Nora Kennedy, Brid Brady, Mary Sullivan, Gay Fannon

> back row: Mairead Conaty, Áine Sullivan, Yvette von Cramon,  Pamela Young, Dara Hume, Fidelma Sheridan, Paula O'Neill, Fiona Flynn, Jennifer McEntee, Lucilla O'Hanlon, Gráinne Tierney, Tina Farrelly

On Saturday, people scattered in groups to do some sightseeing and shopping - a fleet of trains, trams, taxis, tuk tuks brought us all over that city and beyond. In the evening there was an optional workshop at the Aula Magna with Helena Fojkar Zupancic. This was a great session and an opportunity to learn new techniques and spend time - and compare notes - with people and from other choirs. In the evening we convened at our hotel for a lovely meal followed by a convivial 'sing song' in the games room. As we had an early start on our timtable for the next morning, we kept an eye on the clock!

Early Sunday morning we returned to the Aula Magna for our Evaluation with the three judges. This turned out to be a mini-workshop for us all. After we sang our three. pieces, the jusdges retired for a short time, then returned and gave us some very helpful feedback, and each did a short revision exercise with us. This was a new new experience for us, and very beneficial. Our programme for evaluation was

• Cantique de Jean Racine [Fauré]
• Fly Me To The Moon [Howard]
• All That Jazz [Ebb & Kander]

We spent the rest of the day at more sightseeing, shopping, eating, resting. In the early evening we rehearsed again and prepared for the final event of the weekend, the closing ceremony at which we were one of three choirs invited to sing. We opened this concert, so could be fully relaxed in the best seats for the rest of the events. Our set for this was

• Siul a Ruin [Trad. arr McGlynn] (solo Martina Lee Boyle, descant Áine Duffy) 
• The Rhythm of Life [Coleman & Fields]
• Oh Danny Boy [Wetherby]

Cavan Singers with Musical Director Eileen Tackney and Accompanist Sue Donohoe

Musical Director Eileen Tackney and Choir Representative Brid Brady holding our flag with Judge Helena at the closing award ceremony

We were up early Monday morning for an efficiant journey home and arrived back at our cars in the Hotel Kilmore exactly on schedule at 4pm. Thank you to our organising committee for such a lovely trip, and to our guests who travelled and supported and helped us - it was a treat to have such company with us! And thanks to the staff of the Hotel Masa, Gran Campo, Lisbon for all their help while we were there.

Next up ... the Christmas singing season begins ... we sing five times - at the Cavan General Oncology Service on Dec 7th, in the Church of Ireland Cavan on Dec 8th, in Cavan Cathedral on Dec 11th, on the square on Cavan Town on Dec 14th, and with Cavan Sinfinia on the 16th.

Below are some of the fabulous photographs from the Lisbon Sings 2024 festival photographers, on their Flickr site at https://www.flickr.com/photos/interkulturevents/54134282562 

First stop Irish Embassy

We paid a courtesy visit to the Irish Embassy in Lisbon, as they had some Ireland-Portugal lapel pins for us to wear at our performances at the festival.

The staff were lovely and we left them some Tayto and from Cavan we had some Áine's chocolates and a piece of Elena Brennan jewelry.

Pictured here are Carmel Gaffney, Fidelma Sheridan, Mags Amond, John from the Embassy, and Terry O'Connor. And President Higgins on the wall behind us!

It was a great start to our five days in Lisbon.