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Northwest University Concert Choir concert in St Anne’s

Friday May 15th 2015

The Northwest University Concert Choir singing in St Anne’s Cathedral on May 14.

St Anne’s resounded to the beautiful voices of the Northwest University Concert Choir from Kirkland, Washington State, USA, at lunchtime on Thursday May 14.

The 50-strong choir, directed by Professor Bill Owen, chairman of the music department at Northwest University, is on a tour of Ireland and St Anne’s was their opening concert.

The Concert Choir performs in churches throughout the Northwest region of the USA and tours occasionally. Two of its most recent tours included England and Wales (2006), where the choir performed in Canterbury, Southwark, Bristol, and Winchester cathedrals, Bath Abbey, Holy Trinity Church in Stratford, and Great St Mary’s Church in Cambridge; and Italy (2008) where the choir performed in Florence, Pistoia, Sorrento, Siena, Rome, and St Mark’s Cathedral in Venice.

For some of the Concert Choir’s members, whose ages range from 18-22, this was a first visit to a Cathedral. One young male singer said St Anne’s was ‘so amazing and incredible I could cry!’

The Concert Choir and a small but enthusiastic audience were welcomed by the Rev Campbell Dixon who gave them a potted history of Northern Ireland, and following their stunning concert they were thanked by the Dean’s Vicar, the Rev Canon Denise Acheson.

The choir sang many items, including the moving ‘Do Not Be Afraid’ by Philip Stopford, a former Director of Music at St Anne’s, and finished with the lovely ‘Peace I leave with You.’

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