Donegal Voices

The centrepiece of this year’s performance by the Donegal Voices, From The Bavarian Highlands,  is a set of six choral songs which Edward Elgar wrote as a remembrance of a holiday the composer and his wife Alice had enjoyed in Upper Bavaria, during the autumn of 1894. The song lyrics were adapted to Elgar’s music by Alice, who gave them sub-titles in recollection of favourite places they visited during the holiday.

The concert will showcase some of the many outstanding voices within the choir to provide solo, chorus and semi-chorus throughout a diverse and interesting programme.

Donegal Voices was formed in 2015 by Deborah Cunningham and Eileen Carr with Andrew Batchelor as Musical Director.  Members are from Dunfanaghy and Letterkenny in the north of the county, from Gort a’Choirce to the West, and from Donegal, Ballyshannon and Bundoran in the south. In recent years, this exceptional 50 member vocal ensemble has performed works by JS Bach (Magnificat in D) , Vivaldi (Gloria), Beethoven (Mass in C),  George Friderik Handel (Coronation Anthems and The Hallelujah Chorus) and the ensemble’s last performance before Covid, Joseph Haydn’s Nelson Mass in 2019.

Principal soloists, drawn from the Choir, are Deborah Cunningham, Soprano, Pat Doherty, Tenor and Paul Martin, Baritone.

Andrew Batchelor, Conductor and Musical Director of Donegal Voices, is principally a singer, having been a post-graduate student at The Royal Academy of Music, London.  He has performed extensively as a soloist in the UK and Europe and was for many years a member of the world renowned Chorus of the Academy of St. Martin.

Marie Batchelor has been the rehearsal accompanist with Donegal Voices from their inception, and this year accompanies the programme in its entirety.  She is a very much acclaimed accompanist and is, indeed, in great demand as a solo pianist in her own right.