Famous Le Chéile Singers from Offaly prepare for annual summer concert

THE Le Chéile Singers are presenting their summer concert, “Here Comes the Sun”, at St Catherine’s Church, Hop Hill, Tullamore on Sunday, May 25, at 7pm.
For this much anticipated event, the choir will be joined by special guests the traditional group Trad Cúig and soprano Helen Hancock.
The choir will be accompanied by the well known organist and keyboard player Charles Marshall. Ciaran (Rocky) Whelan will be playing guitar and Stephen McCormack the beatbox.
A number of choir members will also be performing on harp, violin and cello for some of the songs, and there will also be solo singing performances from some of them.

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The programme of choral songs will range from ancient to modern, with the Beatles song “Here Comes the Sun” as the title song of the concert, and the stunning mediaeval plain chant Media Vita featuring earlier in the concert.
Le Chéile Singers, based in Tullamore, are a four part harmony choir of just over 20 members who have been performing for over 15 years.
The choir was founded by Musical Director Andrius Kozlovskis. They have performed at a great variety of events, most recently in Tavira, Portugal, last month, where they performed alongside a local choir in the church of St Magdalena.
That concert was a resounding success, and ended with a standing ovation. A number of the songs performed in Tavira feature on the programme for the St Catherine’s concert, and choir members are very excited to be performing them again, as well as other songs specifically chosen for this concert.
Charles Marshall is very well known as an organ recitalist. He has been organist and Director of Music at St Ann’s Church, Dawson Street in Dublin since 2009, and is looking forward to accompanying Le Chéile for this event.

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Helen Hancock is a soprano soloist and singing teacher based in Galway, who is well known for her inspiring workshops for choirs. She will be performing some songs from her classical music repertoire. Helen recorded an album Zweisamkeit (Togetherness) in Germany last year, which will be released later this year.
Trad Cúig is a recently established Irish traditional music group who are hoping to win new fans with their performance at St Catherine’s.
Tickets for this special event will be on sale via choir members, through the Esker Arts Centre (www.eskerarts.ie) and on the door on the night. The admission price is 15 Euros (under 12’s free)