Christmas Family Gala 2013
Nearly 2,000 people joined the Dublin County Choir in the National Concert Hall on Sunday 8 December 2013 for our annual celebration, featuring
- musical director John Dexter,
- soprano Niamh Murray,
- the Royal Irish Academy of Music Concert Band (conductor Fergus O’Carroll)
- the Billie Barry Stage School
- accompanist Celine Kelly
and lots more!
For our matinée performance, at 2.30 pm, we were joined by the Notre Dame Junior School Choir from Churchtown under their director Liz Foster. They impressed us with their varied choice of repertoire, including a lovely novelty number I can’t get to sleep, which ended with the choir in a somnolent posture. The 7 o’clock performance featured the Choir of St Brigid’s National School, Castleknock, whose director Niamh Williams drew a wonderful choral sound from her more than 80 charges.
As another addition to our regular line-up, this year we secured the services of a vibrant performing group, the Sax Sisters. This is all-female saxophone quartet performed on this occasion with a Sax Brother, standing in for one of their regular members who had just become a mother; they gave us a varied set of mainly Christmassy numbers, with polished and united sound.
Fergus O’Carroll’s RIAM Concert Band had audience and choir joining in with a great medley of Christmas favourites. Soprano Niamh Murray, as well as introducing the various acts with wit and aplomb, wowed us with her solo contributions, tastefully supported by Celine Kelly on the piano. And the show culminated with the Concert Band, the Dublin County Choir, the children’s choir and Celine Kelly on piano, all under the baton of our Musical Director John Dexter, joining Niamh for a glorious rendering of Adolphe Adam’s O Holy Night.
