Strabane Chorale make it a hat-trick of wins in Navan

STRABANE CHORALE was in celebratory mood this week after they made it a hat-trick of wins at a prestigious choral festival.

For the third year in a row, Strabane’s singing sensations defended their title by once more taking home the top prize in the Mixed Voice Competition at the Navan Choral Festival. Hosting choirs from all over the island, the Navan Choral Festival is the pinnacle of choral singing.

Strabane choir master Gerard Bradley was elated at the win, commenting, “Everyone involved with Strabane Chorale is overjoyed, our third in succession in this particular category. Performances of ‘Music of Living’ by Dan Forrest and an acapella version of The Beatles song ‘Golden Slumbers’ saw the group bring the win over the line with wonderful accompaniment on piano by Stephen Bradley. It was a hard-fought win; I could tell by the adjudicators faces that we had a fight on our hands against the other groups, but we came through to triumph.

“Having the competition set in a church for the first time helped us immensely as there’s something about the acoustics of a church which just lends itself to choral music.”

The group also took part in the Sacred Music category finishing third although Gerard admits to prioritising the Mixed Vocal category as the group were defending their title. He added, “It’s fair to say we certainly did the lion’s share of preparation for that, due to our optimism.”

Gerard also took time to acknowledge the other musical triumph for the town, as Strabane Brass Band brought home the top prize at the Spring Festival Championships in Omagh on Sunday.

“This is a wonderful weekend for musical talent in Strabane,” he said.

Three members of the Strabane Brass, Ryan Quinn, Kevin Sheilds and Terry Doherty are also part of the Strabane Chorale ensemble.

Finally, Gerard says that anyone who wishes to get a taste of the winning music can do so at their last engagement of the season with a concert in Christ Church in Derry on June 23 at 7pm.