Join us for a festive evening of uplifting choral music from around the world and across the ages in the beautiful acoustic of St Mary’s Church, Haddington Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4.

To include the world premiere of a new carol by Rhona Clarke, and also the Irish premieres of other contemporary carols.

Early Bird Tickets available now from Eventbrite or on the door. Buy now for super-early bird discount!

There will be no interval and the concert will last about 75 minutes.

Cuore are fundraising now for our first professional recording, planned for 2026, featuring premiere recordings of music by composers associated with the choir, including:

• A Can of Lilt (2026). A tour de force of mouth sounds, extended vocal techniques, and lilting of originally composed material at times evoking traditional Irish style, with modal fusion of tonalities. Commissioned by Cuore from alumna Anne-Marie O’Farrell with the support of the Arts Council.
• A Welsh Carol (2025). A harmonically exciting new carol setting from Rhona Clarke, commissioned by Cuore with the support of our singers, Friends and Patrons.
• To a Child Dancing Upon the Shore (2025). A beautiful setting of the evocative W. B. Yeats poem. Commissioned by Cuore from Polish composer Michał Ziółkowski to celebrate our 10th anniversary.
• Other music (TBD) written for Cuore and/or by current and former members.

If you’re inspired by what we do and would like to support our first commercial recording or to fund other commissions, we’d love to hear from you!

What a pleasure to have lyric tenor Christopher Bowen of Chamber Choir Ireland join us for a Choral Clinic at our rehearsal this evening! Chris has a wealth of experience as a professional soloist and ensemble singer with groups such as The BBC Singers and Theatre of Voices.

It was wonderful to work in detail on some of the Romantic and contemporary competition repertoire for our trip to the International Baltic Sea Choir Competition in two weeks time. Thank you to Chris for his insightful comments, encouraging feedback and good humour. Thank you also to Chamber Choir Ireland for organising these clinics and to The Arts Council for funding them.

We highly recommend that other Sing Ireland members apply for future choral clinic opportunities.

We were joined by the wonderful Zoltán Pad for the second half of tonight’s rehearsal. Zoltán is a highly experienced professional conductor and adjudicator who has worked worldwide, particularly in his native Hungary and in Germany, where he studied.

He gave us his expert feedback and guidance on our singing of German Romantic music. It was wonderful to work in detail on subtle nuances of this repertoire. Tonight’s workshop focused in particular on Felix Mendelssohn’s Denn er hat seinen Engeln befohlen, as we prepare for an upcoming European Grand Prix competition.