Mount Wolseley Singers to celebrate 20 years with concert in Visual in Carlow next month

WHAT could have been a choir of pinstriped, bowler-hatted golfers has blossomed into an ABBA and craic-loving group of singers over 20 years of musical direction from opera singer Gina Hanley.

The group of 32 amateur singers that make up Mount Wolseley Singers got together in 2006 when Gina, an international opera singer, and country singer Michael English were asked to create the group by the former owner of the Mount Wolseley Hotel and family friend Donal Morrissey.

Since then, the group has raised approximately €60,000 for cancer research and support workers at its annual Christmas concert in the hotel. To celebrate their anniversary this year, the choir is holding a special concert at Visual on Thursday 2 April.

For Tullow native Gina, giving back to her community through music is natural. In the 1980s, Mary Kavanagh gathered a group of ten anonymous patrons to fund Gina’s university degree at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. To this day, Gina says she doesn’t know who they are. “Mary didn’t want me beholden to anybody. I’m so blessed. I’ll never be able to thank them enough.” 

She had come to singing late, her lyric soprano voice growing quickly after taking singing lessons at the college of music, Chatham Row, free to Gina because she was an employee of Dublin VEC at the time. At the age of 26, she was admitted to the top music college in England on the spot during her audition. “I don’t know what I was thinking. I didn’t apply anywhere else,” said Gina, incredulous at her younger self.

Gina’s career flourished after finishing her degree and led her to perform as a soloist with the Northern Irish, Welsh and Scottish operas, the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden and in opera houses in Scandinavia and Russia. She set up a trio called the Celtic Divas with Debra Stuart and Yvonne Barclay under the direction of David Munro. Of this glorious time, she said “we never laughed so much in our lives”.

She returned to Ireland to be near family and began teaching music while also continuing to tour with the trio. She now teaches the popular music course at SETU Waterford. “I’m very blessed that I love teaching almost as much as I love singing,” said Gina wholeheartedly.

But on Monday evenings in Tullow parish centre for the Wolseley Singers practice, she leaves stardom at the door. “It’s all about the craic. It is mighty… I think the biggest compliment I got was that two of the ladies said to me ‘we come in here and we’re like giggling teenagers all over again’. I thought that was just a beautiful way of defining it.” 

The group has sung in the National Concert Hall with Paddy Cole and have taken trips to sing in Prague and Budapest.

That is not to say they don’t get down to business ahead of their big concerts: “Now they have their heads down and they’re very serious about this concert in Visual. We have a lot of new members and it’s their highlight. And I wanted to celebrate it because I didn’t do it on my own.” 

She credits her “wonderful committee” and rehearsal pianist Martin Lacey as being “mega important” to the success of the group. “We’re like a family,” said Gina.

As a full circle moment for Gina, Debra Stuart will join them as a soloist at the concert, as will Michael English. Two of her students, Aoife Doyle and Karen Daniel, will also join them.

Gina wants the audience for the upcoming concert to bring their voices: “It’ll be old school, it’ll be hard for them to sit there and keep their mouths shut – they have to join in, too.

“There’s something really moving and heartfelt when you sing as a unit, there’s something really strong about that and voices together. They’re empowered, and they nearly stand up taller because of the group mentality.

“I think singing should be about joy. In every aspect of my singing world, it should be about joy and sharing it,” she reflected.