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Delaware Women's Chorus heads overseas

Cathy Carter/Delaware Public Media

This month, the Delaware Women's Chorus will take their talents overseas on a trip to Ireland.

The itinerary includes visits to the Cliffs of Moher, the Ring of Kerry, Kilkenny, and Blarney Castle.Their program is titled "Hands Across the Water" and their repertoire is focused on American folk music as well as Irish folk music.  DWC artistic director Joanne Ward, admits she’s a bit nervous about singing traditional Irish music to an Irish audience.

“Absolutely and that was one of the things that I said when I visited last year, ‘oh what would you like to hear? Irish music is so wonderful but surely you don’t want to hear us do your music’ and they said, oh absolutely so yes, we are doing some Irish folk music but I do it with trepidation and hope that we have our gaelic correct.” she adds with a laugh.

Ward says she hopes the tour will also help boost the ensemble’s profile in their home state. The DWC range in age from 22 to 82 years old. When Ward took over, the group consisted of 11 women.

“Today we have a good 30,” she says. “And we have a core of women who come back every year and we do amazing music. “We started doing just little two-part stuff, today we do four-part, we do commissioned  pieces, we do everything from renaissance and baroque to vocal jazz.”

Before their trip, the Delaware Women's Chorus will perform a free send off concert Tuesday, June 9, at 7 p.m. at the Music School of Delaware's Concert Hall in Wilmington.

 

This piece is made possible, in part, by a grant from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.

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