Soisgeul, the Gaelic Gospel Choir

A new choir has emerged in the world of Gaelic Choirs. Following on from Kenny Thomson's comment at Inverness Castle during the National Mod, calling the Massed Choirs, Scotland's National Gaelic Choir, an exciting project is happening this year to open up new opportunities for singers to perform.

The objects of the new association are to develop a core repertoire of appropriate music, to compete at the 2015 BBC Gospel Choir of the Year, to visit the US Gospel Festival in 2015, and to participate in other events as deemed appropriate. The new association is part of the larger Association of Gaelic Choirs. The aspiration is that this first collaboration will lead to lots of other exciting opportunities for Our Musical Director is Mary Ann Kennedy who is no stranger to the world of Gaelic Music, and she has worked tirelessly to get this new choir up and running.

The project is being followed by Demus Productions, an independent TV production company, who are making a 'fly on the wall' documentary to be screened on BBC Alba later in the year.

The choir has now had three full rehearsal days in Inverness, gathering together choristers from all over the country. A recording has been made of the two songs for the BBC competition and that entry has gone in. We await the decision of the judges to discover whether we have got through to the final in July.

During Saturday's rehearsal, choristers were taken out of their comfort zone, as Coco Tenorio from Venezuela, took us through some Salsa dance routines. This caused much hilarity and energy as we all got to grips with the moves.

The singing was first class as choristers had clearly done their Although the singers for this first part of the project have been selected, there are still opportunities to join the group. Our first official 'gig' is at the Solas Festival in Perth on the 21st June. If you are interested in joining the project, email gaelicgospelchoir@hotmail.com

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