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For such a small place, Northern Ireland ‘punches way above its weight’ when it comes to singing and choirs. Sing Out celebrates the choirs and asks who are all these people and why do they do it? It’s an opportunity to enjoy the choirs singing and talking about their passion and get an insight into this wonderful world of music where absolutely anyone can be a participant, where musical expertise can range from beginners to highly sophisticated.

Sing Out will meet some of the choirs where the standard of choralism is the most important aspect. These highly accomplished choirs have given Northern Ireland a worldwide reputation for choral excellence. Sing Out asks why do we have so many very good choirs in such a small country. But the programme also meets choirs for whom the music and the musical standard is secondary to the social aspect or some other reason for the choir’s existence – ie choirs whose members have something else in common (apart from the music), for example, a works choir.

Producer and presenter, John Anderson, meets the choirs and talks to the singers.

The series is an affectionate and unashamedly biased (!) celebration of choral music in Northern Ireland today.

This week’s programme includes:
The Parting Glass (trad) - Shaun Davey, Rita Connelly, Belfast Philharmonic
City Songs (Esenvalds) - Movement 3 - Festival Chorus (Derry International Choir Festival)
Get on board - Ebrington Primary School, L’Derry
Libertango – Swingle Singers
The Seal Lullaby – Thornhill College, Derry
Goodnight (Richard Rodney Bennett) – Codetta
Little Man In A Hurry (Eric Whitacre) – Codetta
That’s An Irish Lullaby (Shannon) – Bogor Agricultural University, Indonesia
Sanctus from The Armed Man (Jenkins) – Festival Chorus