Tallaght Choral Society was formed in 1967, when Tallaght was still a small village at the foot of the Dublin mountains. A group of singers came together under the direction of Fr. Donal Sweeney OP to form a church choir based in the Dominican Priory. Under a succession of music directors, the small church choir gradually took on the mantle of a choral society. Before Covid we had a membership of over 80 and are now almost back to that strength.
Tallaght Choral Society has a reputation as one of Ireland’s strongest choral societies and our current Music Director, Lynsey Callaghan, was appointed in September 2015. Our members are excited to be working with Lynsey who has already established herself as one of the most successful Irish choral conductors of her generation.
Tallaght Choral Society has participated in many RTÉ productions and its successful collaborations included works with the National Symphony Orchestra, RTE Concert Orchestra, National Youth Orchestra, Belfast Philharmonic Choir, RIAM Orchestra, Liverpool Welsh Choral Union, Edinburgh Royal Choral Union and a US choir, Bel Canto Chorus. In 2017, TCS celebrated its 50th anniversary and is delighted that its founder, Fr. Donal, is still actively involved and is the current President. This anniversary was marked by a successful performance of Mozart’s ‘Requiem’ in the National Concert Hall in June, followed by a trip to Rome in October where we sang in St. Peter’s Basilica, in San Clemente and at an Evensong service in All Saints.
Since then we have performed at the National Concert Hall, the Ulster Hall, Handel Concert Hall in Halle, Germany and in more intimate venues including Whitefriars St. Church; St Jude the Apostle Church, Templeogue; Terenure College Chapel; and in our alma mater St Mary's Dominican Priory, Tallaght. Works performed varied from popular and traditional choral pieces such as Messiah and Orff's Carmina Burana to more modern pieces by Britten, Jenkins, Holst, Poulenc, Gjello, Durufle and Vaughan Williams.
We were lucky that just before Covid 19, we were able to give a full bodied performance of Vivaldi and Handel favourites in our ''Glories of the Baroque'' concert in January 2020. The following two years kept us together through zoom rehearsals, other virtual events and also by organising a number of enjoyable ''Big Sings'' where we were joined by singers from across the country.
Since Covid we have performed a ''Concert to lift the Spirit'' in The Holy Spirit church in Greenhills. We were also involved in an innovative collaboration with the Irish National Opera which developed ''As an nGnách'' an exciting bilingual virtual community opera - a world first. We gave a spine tingling rendition of Jenkins ''The Armed Man'' and other peace anthems in our ''Better is Peace'' concert in Terenure College. Finally our ''Brahms, Britten, Beach and Beyond'' concert had a specific emphasis on female composers. Besides pieces by Amy Beach, it also included a new composition by Grace O'Duffy, an emerging young talent. This piece was specially commissioned by TCS and Lynsey to particularly encourage young musicians.