The St Mungo Singers
The choir was founded in 1971 to support the development of music in the liturgy in the Archdiocese – and elsewhere. The directors are Gerry Fitzpatrick, Noel Donnelly and Elaine Moohan. The organist is Jane McKenna supported by Jacqueline Barrett. The Social Committee is open to any choir member; the Convenor is Elspeth Glasgow and the Secretary is Mary Bradley. The Choir Treasurer is Grace Buckley. New members welcome.
We rehearse on Sundays from 7.00 to 9.00 in St Leo’s. We sing in the Cathedral and elsewhere for Archdiocesan celebrations, and in parishes when invited to give them support for the funerals of priests and special parish occasions such as Jubilees. We sing for Glasgow Churches Together and for ecumenical services along with the Rutherglen Salvation Army Band, Russkaya Cappella, the South Side Fiddlers and many others.
We support civic-inspired events such as the Blessing of the Crib, Carols for Peace, and Glasgow the Welcoming City, and we promote the many events of the St Mungo Festival (The Mass of St Mungo, the Glasgow Cathedral Ecumenical Service, and Mitchell Library events) and the Mass of our Celtic Roots which marks the Celtic Connections Festival. The choir celebrates an annual Requiem Mass for deceased members and their families.
Since radioalba.org christian went on line in 2013 we have provided much of the music for Morning, Evening and Night Prayers along with some 16 schools.
We maintain a core of plainsong, of classical polyphony (Palestrina, Tallis, Byrd, Lotti….), of Bach and Handel, of Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Berlioz, Vaughan-Williams, Elgar, Walford Davies, Rutter, Chilcott and lots more. Since we are a liturgical choir we keep renewing our contemporary vernacular settings of psalms and Masses. This session we will add Paul Inwood’s piece for ‘The Jubilee of Mercy’ and Noel Donnelly’s ‘Unless a grain of wheat’ to our basic repertoire as well as another Palestrina piece. . . . .
New events this session will include a Mass to mark the 50th anniversary of the introduction of English into our liturgy (October 18th) and a service marking the vigil of the Feast of St Margaret of Scotland on the 15th November. Some of the choir will take part in the BBC Songs of Praise in St Andrew’s Cathedral. Other events before Christmas will include the Glasgow Churches Together celebration of St Andrew’s Day in St Andrew’s Cathedral, and Carols for Peace in the City Chambers. January will see us involved in The St Mungo Festival Mass, the Festival Service in St Mungo’s Cathedral, the ‘Vita Kengtigerni’ in the Mitchell Library, the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, and the Mass of Our Celtic Roots.
