The election of Pope Leo XIV, a former leader of the Augustinian Order, gave an extra dimension to the ‘Maytime Choral Spectacular’ in the Augustinian Church in Shop Street, Drogheda.
The Mayor of Drogheda, Cllr. Paddy McQuillan opened proceedings, and before welcoming the Clermont Choir from Blackrock, Dundalk, he commented on the fact that he was aware of where this recital was taking place and the significance it had to the election of Pope Leo XIV.
The Mayor went on to warmly welcome Musical Director, Ronan Dennedy and the ‘Clermont Chorale’ Choir to Drogheda and thanked them for giving their services to such a worthy organisation as the St Vincent De Paul who, he remarked, do so much work in helping our communities, so discretely and diligently, through their dedicated volunteers.
He went on to commend Musical Director, David Leddy and the Drogheda Male Voice Choir, whom he said, have given so much of their time to fundraising charities over the years since their formation in 2013.
The Clermont Chorale Choir opened their performance with the appropriate “The Month of Maying” by Thomas Morley which instantly had the audience appreciating their beautiful tight harmony. They also included some special arrangements, such as the Billy Joel “And So It Goes” with vocalists Daire Stanley and Oisín Scott.
They really excelled with Irving Berlin’s “Blue Skies” and the ladies of the choir got their chance to show off their glitter with the classic, “Diamonds Are a Girls Best Friend”.
Clermont Chorale were immediately followed on to the stage by the procession of the Drogheda Male Voice Choir up the centre aisle of the church to the resonating strains of Vangeli’s “Conquest of Paradise”. This was a most impressive beginning to their performance and led to many choral renditions of various genre’s of music before they unleashed a fantastic performance, for the first time, of the “Hallelujah Chorus” which brought the audience to their feet with a standing ovation.
They had previously regaled their appreciative audience with “Rocky Road To Dublin” and the beautiful Verdi piece, “le Virgine De Angeli” with soloist Timmy Regan.
They sang a beautiful arrangement of “Bridge Over Troubled Water” with Tommy Finnegan this time taking the soloist part and another Billy Joel composition of “The Longest Time” and the ever popular tenor, John Moonan, stepping in as the soloist.
The usual interjection of the wonderful Dick Murphy took place with his hilarious version of how one would get to “Morrow”. The highlight and finale of the evening concluded with both choirs coming together to sing the beautiful “You’ll Never Walk Alone” from the Musical, Carousel.
Before the evening concluded, Ms Deirdre Seery, from St Vincent De Paul, paid tribute to both choirs for their magnificent performances and coming forward to raise funds for the charity. She thanked the attendance and outlined the valuable work of SVP volunteers and the wide area which it covers in the North East.
The church was absolutely ‘buzzing’ at the end of this ‘Maytime Choral Spectacular’ with excitement at the marvellous evenings entertainment they had enjoyed for two hours.
