Raising the roof: Jade O’Malley, who will be performing a solo from Calamity Jane, is pictured in front of Louisburgh Hall, getting ready for the summer concert on May 31 with Louisburgh Music School and Louisburgh Voices, which will help to raise funds for the renovation of the hall.

Summer concert will raise the roof on Louisburgh Hall

Published:

By Tom Gillespie

A SUMMER concert will be staged in Louisburgh on Wednesday, May 31, the funds from which will go towards the renovation of the local 80-year-old hall.

Built in 1943, Louisburgh Hall is a vital resource for many local community groups and youth activities, but urgently requires repairs to the roof, as well as further renovations to the building.

Louisburgh Voices and Louisburgh Music School are organising the concert, with the curtain up at 7.30 p.m.

Pauline Graham will be conducting Louisburgh Voices, a mixed-voice adult choir which she founded in 2018.

Louisburgh Voices presented the first opera produced in Louisburgh - Dido and Aeneas - in 2019, and has taken part in the Mayo Choral Festival, as well as collaborating with Cór Mhaigh Eo for a performance of Fauré’s Requiem at Ballintubber Abbey.

For this concert, Louisburgh Voices will be performing four American Spirituals (two newly arranged for the choir) and a selection of sea shanties, joined by guest musicians Joe Forde (voice and guitar) and Michael Grealis (accordion).

Guest musician Nikita Svechenets, a Ukrainian classical guitarist, will be performing music by Bach and Astor Piazzolla.

Students of Louisburgh Music School will perform a lively selection of songs from stage and screen - from shows like Matilda, Calamity Jane, and My Fair Lady - along with operatic arias by Mozart and Bizet (the famous Habanera from Carmen), and piano solos by Einaudi, Granados, and Beethoven.

The programme will also include some well-known traditional tunes and songs.

Louisburgh Music School was established by Pauline Graham and Michael Quinn five years ago, with the aim of bringing high-quality tuition in voice, piano, classical flute and music theory to students of all ages.

Their students come from Louisburgh, Westport and surrounding areas - from Clare Island to Castlebar - and have achieved success in student concerts, in musical theatre productions, national competitions, and graded exams, but most of all in their own personal musical journey.

Tickets for the concert are €16 and €10 for young people under 25, and they are available from Gala, Louisburgh, in their new premises on Bridge Street.

For more details on the activities of Louisburgh Voices and Louisburgh Music School, please contact Michael Quinn on (087) 3674260, email info@louisburghmusicschool.com, or follow Louisburgh Music School on Facebook.

Published: