麻豆约拍

Handel’s Messiah is one of the most famous pieces of classical music in the world. A firm festive favourite, it is performed by choirs every Christmas and has been translated into many languages. However, it has never been performed in Ulster-Scots - until now.

Singing The Messiah begins on 麻豆约拍 Two Northern Ireland, Sunday 15 December at 9pm.

The new two-part series for 麻豆约拍 Northern Ireland follows composer and musician Neil Martin as he creates a community choir on the Ards Peninsula for a special Christmas performance of Handel’s Messiah in Ulster-Scots.

This September Neil embarked on his new challenge with the help of two local choir directors, Diane Holt from Newtownards and Claire Buchanan, a music teacher at Bangor Grammar - starting with a nerve-jangling day of auditions.

Filmed over a six-week period the series follows the selected choir members as they prepare for their special Christmas performance of extracts from Messiah, staged at The Portico of Ards, in Portaferry in front of a local audience.

Made up of 36 people, with an age range from 16-80 years-old, the choir includes people from towns and villages across the peninsula, including Portavogie, Cloughey, Portaferry, Newtownards and Greyabbey. The choir is made up of people who were attracted to the project for a range of personal reasons.

While the choir had some local native Ulster-Scots speakers, for the majority of singers it was their very first experience of the language - with only six weeks to rehearse for the final performance.

The first episode follows the formation of the choir and follows them through their first three rehearsals, introducing some of the contributors, such as Mechelle Caughey and her daughter Charlotte.

Episode two follows the choir through their final rehearsals as they prepare for the Christmas performance in The Portico.

Among the key contributors in the series are:

Mechelle and Charlotte Caughey
Mechelle Caughey and her family live in Portavogie. One of her daughters, 16 year-old Charlotte, is a talented singer at her school, Regent House in Newtownards. While singing runs in Mechelle’s family, she has never sung publicly before outside of in church. She has taken the opportunity to sing in the choir as a challenge for herself and also for the chance to sing with her daughter. Charlotte was chosen to sing one of the two solos for the performance, My Redeemer Liveth.

Shelley Perry
Shelley’s family have lived in Cloughey for more than 200 years. A classroom assistant, she has three young children with her husband Steve - Lydia, Caleb, and Eliza. She was inspired to join the choir as a tribute to her grandmother, who died recently. Her grandmother was immersed in the Ulster-Scots culture of the area and, for Shelley, participating in the choir has led her to reconnect with her Ulster-Scots family heritage.

Brian and Tom McCormick
Brian McCormick lives in Donaghadee, and is a joiner. Brought up in the gospel hall tradition Brian has a strong religious faith and has a special affinity for the Messiah. Along with a love of singing, his motivation for joining was a desire to connect to his own heritage. His mother, Virginia grew up speaking Ulster-Scots in Greyabbey His son, Tom, studied theology in Scotland and considered the ministry before deciding to work with his father.

Julie Edmonds
Julie, from Newtownards, is a nurse and is married with two children. In 2017, Julie suffered from severe depression and anxiety. As part of her recovery, her doctor suggested she join a choir. She has developed a love of singing and benefited from the social side of belonging to the community choir.

Steven Irwin
From Loughgall, Co Tyrone, Steven lives in Portaferry and is a teacher in Kirkistown Primary School. He studied music in London and is a talented singer. A relative newcomer to the area, Steven joined the choir to meet people and to find an outlet for his love of singing. The experience has also led to him to reconnect with his own Ulster-Scots family heritage, and he was chosen to sing the other solo, The Trumpet Shall Sound.

Singing The Messiah was inspired by a community choir formed by Dr Thomas McKean from the University of Aberdeen, who performed Handel’s Messiah in Doric, the Scots language spoken in that area of North-East Scotland.

Singing The Messiah: choir team

• Neil Martin (Musical Director) is an acclaimed composer and musician, whose work has been performed all around the world from the Royal Albert Hall to Carnegie Hall, and the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence.
• Diane Holt (Choir Director) from Newtownards is an accomplished singer and runs the Ards Voice Community Choir.
• Claire Buchanan (Choir Director) lives in Belfast and is a music teacher at Bangor Grammar.

Neil Martin says: "For me, this series has been a great reaffirmation of the all-embracing power of music. It bonds, heals, exalts and comforts us. The project drew together a unique gathering of singers who wholly committed to re-imagining one of the finest pieces of music ever written, and it was a huge honour for all of us."

Director Jonathan Golden sayso: "This has been a fascinating experience in creating our community choir. All of its members took on the challenge of singing Handel’s beautiful music in Ulster-Scots for the very first time and did so with such passion and enthusiasm. The final performance was a very memorable evening for everyone."

Singing the Messiah is a DoubleBand Films production for 麻豆约拍 Northern Ireland in association with the Ulster-Scots Broadcast Fund.

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