800 happy, lusty sets of lungs sang out for The Big Sing in UCH on Thursday 11 as children from 30 county primary schools staged a singing sensation.
Videod by RTE’s Sattitude presenter Declan Woulfe (brother to baritone Nyle Woulfe), the opening Mexican Wave broke on the mountains of Nepal and the shores of Australia and curled into the desert sands of Ghana as these school children sang in unison and in choral quarters.
The Big Sing was a collaborative, interactive project initiated this year by the concert hall with Limerick County Arts office. It’s purpose was to boost familiarity and accessibility to UCH in Limerick children.
“It was part of our Participation and Learning Programme which focuses on young people and children,” explains Aisling O’Gorman, programme manager. “We worked in partnership with the county arts officer Joan MacKernan who has been a great support, and it’s great that the county knows the resource of the concert hall is there for them”.
With co-facilitaters Anita Mahon and Declan secured for the job, work began in June on recruiting the county’s many national schools and “20 signed on almost immediately. We could only facilitate the first 30 that got in touch and ran workshops in four centres across the geographical spread of the county for the children”.
Their excitement, all ages, was palpable and the international mix of traditional Nepalese and silly Caribbean frogs resulted in eclectic energy that got beyond individual talent to something much finer – a sense of self-possession and entitlement to performance at this 1000-seater concert hall for these junior gymslips.
