A warm welcome to our new members

Just over a month ago, after our inaugural event to mark Culture Night, we held our first auditions for the 2015-2016 season.

While the rest of the choir chatted and munched biscuits, musical director Áine Mulvey and accompanist Annalisa Monticelli disappeared into the sacristy of St David's Church to guide our hopeful audtionees through the audition process.

In recent years it has been choir policy to hold auditions every autumn, and so far we have acquired approximately thirty keen new singers.  Like every other choir in Ireland, Nás na Rí Singers are always on the lookout for male voices, and the number of men who brave the audition process is the limiting factor, unfortunately, on how many new ladies we can accept in any given year.  There was great excitement, therefore, this year, as the seats on the sacristy steps filled up with gentlemen who had attended our open rehearsal and been inspired to try choral singing, some for the first time since their schooldays.

Within weeks, the selection process had been completed, voices matched to vacancies on the choir, and letters sent out to candidates.  Unfortunately, it just wasn't possible to accommodate all comers (it never is) in order to maintain a balance in the choir, but we were able to offer places to several ladies this year, as result of gaining six new male members.  A wonderful result for the slightly unusual recruitment process!

We hope our new members are enjoying their first weeks in the choir - we remember how daunting those early rehearsals can be-the choir works fast and covers a huge amount of work in a few short weeks.  We hope that very soon Thursday evening will become the highlight of our new members' week, as it is for so many of us.

Welcome to sopranos Leslie and Deirdre,  alto Helen, tenors Don, Denis and Christopher, baritone Paddy and basses Trevor and Peter.