Tipperary choir celebrates tenth anniversary

Eamon O'Malley is a Tipperary-based musician, composer, musical director and educator. He is also Musical Director of Uproar Chorus. His first solo EP - Liminal Spaces Vol 1 - was released in December 2020 and is available to stream from all major platforms. He is also the creator and host of the Sofa Symphony Listening Party series, an online listening experience that focuses on great works of concert music. He is a founder member of CLE, an electro-acoustic music and digital media ensemble based in Clonmel. Most recently he was Musical Director and Choral Master for Carrick on Suir Musical Society's production of "9 to 5".

The Belles are an all female amateur voice choir; our 32 present members are split into 3 sections (soprano, mezzo-soprano and alto) to sing in three to six part harmony.
Our members come from a wide variety of backgrounds and ages, some have been with us for over 20 years (before we were Belle Voci we were The Glory Day Singers), others just a year. Some live so near that they can walk to practice and some have a much longer journey. We are brought together by our love of singing; our weekly practice is a two hour period where we can leave everything at the door and just sing.

Our repertoire is comprised of pieces from a variety of genres, from well known choral pieces to unexpected choices, in English, Irish, Latin, Italian, French and even one in Zulu. When I say unexpected choices, I mean that our fearless leader has led us down some less travelled paths in the past and no doubt will in the future too, but it has led us to some of our favourite and most memorable performance pieces. This year it was "What Was I Made For" from the Barbie movie, in the past "Sister, Sister" from the musical Alice in Wonderland and I think I can safely say that everyone involved has abiding memories of our "Social Media" suite and how far out of our comfort zone it took us.
For his tenth anniversary Eamon has chosen to bring back some of his own favourites for our upcoming Summer Concert on the 21 June, in Old St. Mary’s Church.

We generally perform two concerts a year, Winter and Summer, with some community singing in between. This year we have sung for the residents, family and staff in Sonas, Carrick on Suir in February and in Acorn Lodge, Cashel in May. We are immensely grateful to Fr. Pierce in Ferryhouse Church for his continued support of the choir and are always happy to sing at Mass once a month and on Christmas Day, St Patrick’s Day and Easter Sunday.
We also travel to competitions and festivals. We won 3rd place in the Limerick Choral Festival this year and are looking forward to a trip somewhere in the Autumn. We travel abroad as well as within Ireland and last year spent a lovely 5 days in Vasto, Italy. In the past the choir has travelled to Lisbon in 2019 and Prague in 2016. We came 2nd in the AIMS Choral Festival in 2022 and 1st in the Limerick Choral Festival in 2021.
Our Summer Concert is a little later than usual this year but that just gives us extra time to sing together and make sure that the concert is the best it can be.

Our guest artist this year is Saoirse Scully and a more accomplished and lovely young lady would be very hard to find. She holds a Diploma in Music Performance from the London College of Music and a Senior Certificate in Musical Theatre and Popular Singing from RIAM. She has achieved Grade 8 in Flute with the Leinster School of Music and is preparing for her Grade 8 in Piano with the same institution. In addition she is an active member of On Your Toes Dance Academy, Bellevue Academy of Performing Arts and Banna Cluin Meala. Saoirse has showcased her talents over the years with roles such as Matilda Wormwood in "Matilda the Musical", Elle Woods in "Legally Blonde", Rizzo in "Grease" and Eponine in "Les Misérables" with Bellevue Academy.

Last year she portrayed Cosette in "Les Misérables" marking the 25th anniversary of the Aims Youth Summer School. She captivated audiences as Sherrie Christian in the High School and Presentation production of "Rock of Ages" last October and recently played the iconic Eva Peron in St Marys Choral Society's production of "Evita". Saoirse's competition class at Bellevue Academy won the Cameo Competition at AIMS in 2023 and the National Showchoir Ireland title in 2022. Saoire herself was awarded "Best Individual Performer" at the Showchoir National Finals in 2022 for her portrayal of Elle Woods and again for her role as Donna Sheridan in "Mamma Mia" in 2023.
Saoirse tells us she is really looking forward to what promises to be an excellent night of entertainment and we, in turn, are very much looking forward to sharing a stage with such a shining talent and a wonderful young lady.