Choral concert to take place in Birr

St Brendan's Church of Ireland in Birr will host an afternoon of choral and modern classics with the fabulous Ballymore Connect Choir and their special guests, Virtuoso Chamber Choir, on Saturday, February 1, at 4pm.

Founded in 2019, Ballymore Connect Choir is one of the largest community choirs in Kildare. It has a current membership of close to 100 voices, and over 70 will perform in Birr.

Under the musical direction of Owen C Lynch, the choir performs regularly in concert and enjoy fundraising for various local charities.

Their programme of music in Birr will include Owen's special arrangements of Red Is The Rose, What A Wonderful World, Rainbow Connection, Song Sung Blue, World In Union and some familiar classics from musicals.

Birr native Aoife Garry is part of the choir. "This is a very special concert for me and I am thrilled that the choir’s first 'tour' is to my hometown," said Aoife.

"We are all very excited about the performance. I was delighted to be able to ask my long-time friends and the group I used to sing with many years ago, the wonderful Virtuoso Chamber Choir, to perform as special guest artists on the day.

"I want to say a sincere thank you to Reverend Arthur Minion who very kindly offered the church to us as a venue. A special word of thanks also to Maureen de Forge and the Birr Festival of Music team for doing such a fabulous job and taking all of the organisation out of our hands. This promises to be a fabulous concert and we hope to see you there."

The concert proceeds will be donated to the Church of Ireland Restoration Fund. Speaking ahead of the concert, Reverend Arthur Minion explained how the funds raised will support vital work.

"The current phase of restoration work on the fabric of the church is to address the ingress of water along the lead valley taking the water from the roof on the north side of the church," said Rev Minion.

"A lead valley runs inside the parapet along the length of the walls of both the north and south sides of the church. The evidence of the problems can be seen at various points at the top of the walls inside the church where the plasterwork and paint work is compromised."

A donation from the proceeds will also be made to Offaly Hospice.

This concert is proudly supported by Birr Festival of Music, the town’s annual classical musical festival.

Tickets are priced €15 (children €5) + booking fee and are on sale now from midlandsbooking.ie