Northern
Ireland Bahá'í Choir Northern
Ireland Bahá'í Choir
Possibly the most diverse Choir
in Northern Ireland!
We have members living all over Northern Ireland with backgrounds from Catholic and Protestant traditions, but also from Persia, Russia, America, Germany, and elsewhere. The age range in the choir is also remarkable - Teenage to Senior Citizen! A better illustration of the principle of Unity in Diversity would be hard to find!
The choir was constructed as a four part , SATB A Cappella--(without accompanying instruments) choir in 1992 under the musical direction of Susie Agahi. The core of our music is the writings of Bahá'u'lláh (founder of the Baha'i Faith) often set to music by Bahá'ís. However, as the popularity of the choir has increased and venues have diversified, the range of pieces has increased to include secular and sacred music. In the right venue, Danny Boy, Blue Moon and Irish Eyes sit side by side with deeply moving sacred pieces by Ravi Shankar , Tom Price, Mozart and others.
It's hard to believe it, but at the end of March '97 the choir was five years old! It was certainly a very fitting and courageous (and terrifying!) way to mark that milestone, by entering the acapella section of the Belfast Music Festival. We didn't win, but as the adjudicator said "were a very worthy second", and we were competing against the top N. Ireland Choir who reached the televised final of Sainsbury's "Choir of the Year". They gained 92 marks and we were only seven behind with 85. The adjudicator praised our "full choral sound", diction and vowel sounds. He said our singing was "totally involved, joyful, and quite infectious". Members of the audience said how much they enjoyed it, and would we be back next year? But most important of all we were able to bring the name of Baha'u'llah and his writings to a whole new group of people.
The choir's success is a tribute to the hard work and dedication of its members (past and present), and also to the support of the whole N.I . Baha'i Community who have encouraged us and invited us to perform. Also to the support of the National Assembly who invited us to sing at National Convention in 1995, and the National Assembly of the Baha'is of the Rep. of Ireland who invited us to sing at two teaching conferences and the most recent all-Ireland conference. We should also thank George Fleming who arranged to have us sing at four opening of his "All God's Children" Art exhibition (Armagh, Craigavon, Castlereagh and Downpatrick), making a beautiful combination of Art and Music .
We hope to continue building on what we have achieved and we are in the process of recording material for a C.D.. We still can use more singers, so please if you are interested get in touch!
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