The original ad from GCN calling for members for what was to become Gloria in 1995

Glória, Dublin’s Lesbian and Gay Choir, presents their summer concert “Glória DLGC & Friends”

The concert will include a new community outreach choir. Glória, Dublin’s Lesbian and Gay Choir, returns to the National Concert Hall for its biggest summer concert on Saturday 15th June at 8:00pm.  The Dublin choir is celebrating its 18^th birthday and will be joined by three other gay and lesbian choirs and choruses from around Ireland.  The concert will be conducted by Musical Director, Ian Packham, and one of key themes of the concert will be friendship and the positive benefits of friendship for mental health.

“We have grown as a choir for 18 years thanks to the support of our friends and supporters,” said Barry Dowling, chairperson of Glória.  “This year we want to focus particularly on creating awareness of mental health issues, and the benefits that belonging to a group such as this can bring. To highlight that theme we created a special Outreach Choir with the help of the Clondalkin Community Action on Suicide and Quarryvale Family Resource Centre who work to promote mental health well-being.  Like previous years this choir also include our friends, families and fans from around the country.

Glória has 65 singing members across four sections (sopranos, altos, tenors and basses).  When the choir started in 1995, it had only 25 members and for a long time we were really Ireland’s Lesbian and Gay Choir, now thankfully we are not alone and are looking forward to being joined by Choral Con Fusion from Cork, Quire – Belfast’s lgbt singers, and The Dublin Gay Men’s Chorus. “

“We are looking forward to taking people on a journey from musicals to madrigals, from classical to camp,” said Ian Packham, Glória’s Musical Director.  “We’ll feature some songs from our extensive back catalogue which have not been heard in a long time as well as a wide range of new songs which we hope will become audience favourites.  Where else could you hear classical pieces from Rachmaninov and Mozart to songs from Cohen, U2, Abba and The Sound of Music!

It’s wonderful to see how this choir has grown,” said Packham, “and to see the commitment and enthusiasm of these women and men.  These are all busy people; some are studying, most have busy careers, and some have kids at home.  They all give up most of their social life from September to June to prepare for this.”

Tickets are on sale now from the National Concert Hall box office on www.nch.ie or 01 4170000.

For queries please contact Richard Deane, Public Relations Officer for the choir by email on publicity@gloria.ie

Gloria, Dublin's Lesbian and Gay Choir - Dublin's Lesbian and Gay Choir

Nationwide

Watch us on Friday June 7th on Nationwide on RTE One at 7pm. Join us and reporter Valerie Waters as she explores snippets of our 18 year history, chats with some choir members about our past, present and future as well as listen to some performances from our upcoming summer concert.

Gloria, Dublin's Lesbian and Gay Choir - Dublin's Lesbian and Gay Choir

Gloria DLGC with Brenda Donohoe

We are honoured to have been announced as the very first winners of Irish Rail and RTE Radio One Mooney Show “Journey’s on Us” competition. We were delighted to have been asked to sing for commuters while they waited for their trains at Dublin’s Heuston Station on Monday 29th April.Brenda Donohoe from the Mooney Show captured the atmosphere in the station while we serenaded passers by with some forthcoming songs from our summer concert. We will be using this opportunity to continue with our outreach work, so look out for us soon as the end of a train line! Thanks very much Irish Rail! We were delighted with the kind comments of passers by and received some lovely messages of support on Facebook and Twitter afterwards from people who had never heard us before. You can listen to our performance on the Mooney Show via this link.

Our Musical Director Ian Packham outlines some of Glória’s 18th birthday events with Brenda from the Mooney Show and Rita Butterly from Irish Rail

Glória singing in Heuston Station on Monday 29th April 2013

Gloria, Dublin's Lesbian and Gay Choir - Dublin's Lesbian and Gay Choir

Sing Out! Come and join a magical singing experience!

Join “The Outreach Choir” at our summer concert in the National Concert Hall on Saturday June 15th.

The Outreach Choir is for anyone who wants to sing.  No previous experience needed!  With Choral Confusion from Cork, Dublin’s Gay Men’s Chorus and Quire from Belfast, the Outreach Choir will join Glória, DLGC in the concert finale.  Together we will be over 200 singers!  The rest of the evening the Outreach Choir will be enjoying the full concert from the seats in the choir balcony.

To prepare for this fantastic event we are holding a music workshop on Saturday 25^th May from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. in Neilstown Church near Liffey Valley Shopping Centre.  Here we will explore and find our voices, have a lot of fun and learn two songs for the concert in the NCH.  The cost of the workshop is €10, (including afternoon tea!).

For the concert you need to be in the NCH for 6.15 p.m., ready for a short rehearsal at 6.30 p.m.  The concert starts at 8 p.m. and as one of the singers you get in for free.

Please note:

• When you register you are committing to participate fully in both events.
• All participants must be aged 18 or over.
• Numbers are limited to 100 and a waiting list will be in place.
• If you register and then find you cannot participate, please let us know so we can give your place to someone on the waiting list.

To register, please email info@gloria.ie by Friday 17^th May, putting “Outreach Choir” in the subject line.

More details will be emailed to you after registration. Please tell your Friends about this opportunity!

Gloria, Dublin's Lesbian and Gay Choir - Dublin's Lesbian and Gay Choir

Glória Dublin’s Lesbian and Gay Choir were delighted to perform on the Craig Doyle Show which was broadcasted on RTE 2 television  on Thursday 13th of December at 10.35pm. The show was recorded on the previous evening..

Hollywood actress and Dubliner Fionnuala Flannagn was presented with a copy of our classical cd and  remarked that she really enjoyed our performance on the show and had heard our feature earlier that day on the RTE Radio One Mooney Show.

Strictly Come Dancing’s Bruno Tonioli delighted audience and choir members alike and was quite envious of our glorious buns! We’ve said we’d send him an apron for Christmas! He promises that is all he will wear on Christmas day and I think having met him, he’s not lying! The choir performed our highly requested version of “Ring Christmas Bells Ring” conducted by our wonderful musical director Ian Packham.

If you missed the show you can watch it on the RTE Player

Gloria, Dublin's Lesbian and Gay Choir - Dublin's Lesbian and Gay Choir

Derek Mooney

Katriona McFadden from The Mooney Show on RTE Radio One popped along to our Christmas concert dress rehearsal on Tuesday 11th December .She interviewed a few members of the choir and listened in on our rehearsal. She was very interested in talking to some of our members on why they joined the choir, what impact it has made on their lives and what makes Glória the brilliant community choir that it is today.  You can hear our particular segment on the show by using this link and skipping along to 26 mins. Even we learned something new about one another after listening in on this!  Featured in the interview are our chairperson Barry, our musical director Ian, happy couple Niamh and Jess and Gloria newbie Niamh. You can find out more about the programme by clicking here or by listening to the podcast of our segment only at this link.

Gloria, Dublin's Lesbian and Gay Choir - Dublin's Lesbian and Gay Choir

Glória, Dublin’s Lesbian and Gay Choir, present their annual Christmas Concert from St Patrick’s Cathedral

12^th December 2012: Glória, Dublin’s Lesbian and Gay Choir, will present their annual Christmas concert in St Patrick’s Cathedral on Friday 14^th December at 8:00pm.  It is now 18 years since the choir was founded and this will be their third consecutive Christmas performance in St. Patrick’s Cathedral.  Each year, the concert attracts a capacity audience of more than 1,200 people.  This year’s concert will be conducted by new musical director, Ian Packham. Ian was a singing member of the choir for many years and took over the role of Musical Director earlier this year.

“The festive favourites will all still be there,” said Packham.  “We’ll have the ones we know people love – ‘O Holy Night’, ‘In the Bleak Mid Winter’, and ‘Walking in the Air’.  But this year we’re adding what we hope will be some new favourites such as ‘Going to Bethlehem’, ‘We Need a Little Christmas’ from the musical Mame, and ‘Sing’ which was composed earlier this year by Gary Barlow and Andrew Lloyd Webber for the Queen’s jubilee.

When the choir started in 1995, it had only 25 members.  Glória now has 65 members across four sections – sopranos, altos, tenors and basses. The Christmas Concert in St Patrick’s is the highlight of the season for the members who have been learning Christmas carols since September.

“It’s wonderful to see how this choir has grown,” said Packham, “and to see the commitment and enthusiasm of these women and men.  These are all busy people: some are studying, most have busy careers, and some have kids at home.  They all give up their entire social life from September to December to prepare for this.”

The choir’s repertoire is wide ranging; from musicals to madrigals and from classical to camp.   As well as choral pieces, there will also be performances on the night by some of the choir’s talented soloists.  This year, the Choir also has a number of Christmas albums on sale which can be bought on the night, or from Glória’s website.

“We are particularly looking forward this year to performing Eric Whitacre’s ‘Lux Arumque’, which we know will sound stunning in the natural acoustics of the cathedral,” said Packham.  “And during the finale, we’ll be inviting the whole audience to join us for of some classic Christmas standards, ‘Silent Night’, ‘O Come All Ye Faithful’, and ‘Hark The Herald Angels Sing’.

Admission to the concert is free, and it is not possible to reserve seating so early arrival at the venue is advised. The choir would like to invite audience members to join them for a drink after the concert. Details will be announced after the performance.   For further information on this event and on the choir, please visit www.gloria.ie

“This has now become a fixture in a lot of family calendars.  We hope that people will come along to our concert to get their Christmas season off to a great start,” Packham concluded.

Further information from:

Richard Deane publicity@gloria.ie

Gloria, Dublin's Lesbian and Gay Choir - Dublin's Lesbian and Gay Choir

The choir were delighted to be able to take part in a cinematic flashmob choir in the Lighthouse Cinema for the fantastic RTE 1 show “Instrumental”. Glória DLGC members and a number of other choirs were in the audience amongst unsuspecting cinema goers.

The clip featuring Glória DLGC will be broadcast on  RTE 1 on Thursday 18^th October at 7pm. You may also watch the show following its broadcast on the RTE Player.

Here is a clip from the show, can you spot some of our members?

You can find out more about the programme on http://www.rte.ie/tv/instrumental/ or follow the programmes Twitter feed by #rteinstrumental

Gloria, Dublin's Lesbian and Gay Choir - Dublin's Lesbian and Gay Choir

You don’t need to sing to keep Glória’s 5th Section in harmony!

We’re looking for energetic, dedicated and creative thinking volunteers to join our 5^th section – a dynamic non-singing volunteer group who assist us in the lead up to performances and with vital behind the scene services.  We are looking for people with skills or experience  in hospitality, photography, graphic design, marketing, the music industry, IT and fashion design. Please email info@gloria.ie We’d be very grateful to have your talents!

Gloria, Dublin's Lesbian and Gay Choir - Dublin's Lesbian and Gay Choir

GALA Choruses, Denver 2012

Four of  our choir members will be in Denver at the GALA Choruses Festival. They will be there to promote Various Voices Dublin 2014. Our members who are going  to Denver are really looking forward to meeting and greeting many of the GALA Choruses delegates.  Thank you for visiting our website if you have come across it from meeting our members in Denver. We hope you enjoy our website and learn more about us. You might want to visit our online shop to get your hands on one of our cds, Gaelic t-shirts and greeting cards.  We look forward to seeing you in Dublin in 2014. Please do follow us on Facebook.com/GloriaDLGC or send us a tweet @Gloriadlgc

GALA Choruses

Gloria, Dublin's Lesbian and Gay Choir - Dublin's Lesbian and Gay Choir