Gala Concert, 2019.

The Large Room, City Hall Waterford, May 2019

Gala Concert, 2019

Waterford Male Voice Choir drew the curtains on a very busy and successful season with a gala concert in the Large Room at Waterford City Hall at the weekend. It was the first time in the 18-year existence of the choir to sing at the city’s most prestigious venue.

Anna Gullman, Vadstena Ladies Choir.
Photo credit: Carolina Fransson

The event featured a performance by a 50+ strong female choir from Vadstena in Sweden. They were in Waterford on a weekend visit as invitees of the Deise choristers and they entertained an appreciative local audience with some wonderfully uplifting traditional Scandinavian melodies together with a mix of modern classics.

Their flamboyant conductor, Anna Gullman, was the very surprised and appreciative recipient of a specially engraved piece of Waterford Crystal presented at the conclusion of the concert by WMVC Chairman, Joe Cashin.

Joining the Waterford singers on the evening programme as featured performers were the Wexford contralto, Sandra Wickham, and local classical pianist, Cecilia Kehoe, who doubles as accompanist to the choir. Their contributions were particularly well received.

But the real stars of the show were the host choir themselves, performing an  8-song programme which included Irish, Swedish and contemporary numbers, concluding with a rousing rendition of ‘When the Saints Go Marching In’.

It was one of two pieces they had sung a fortnight earlier at the AIMS Choral Festival in New Ross when winning the premier award for male voice choirs in Ireland from a list of national entries that included choral groups from Dublin, Wicklow and Wexford.

The weekend event was organised to support the Lady Lane-based charity, Touching Hearts, and was the second event supported in their cause this year by the choir. The concert was also supported by Waterford Music and by Waterford City Hall, gratefully acknowledged in his closing remarks by the WMVC Chairman.  He also paid particular tribute to the choir’s long-serving and distinguished Musical Director, Cian O’Carroll.