24 October 2021 at 20:00

Mornington Singers

Orla Flanagan, conductor

Andrew Johnstone, organ

Mornington Singers

Mornington Singers is an award-winning mixed-voice choir based in Dublin, Ireland and conducted Orla Flanagan. Mornington Singers was the winner of the 4th International Baltic Sea Choir Competition held in Jūrmala, Latvia in September 2019. The choir was named Ireland’s Choir of the Year 2019 at the 65th Cork International Choral Festival.

The choir performs a broad range of choral music and specialises in a cappella repertoire, with a particular focus on music of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Mornington Singers is committed to the promotion of choral music, including the commissioning of new pieces. The choir recently commissioned a major new work from Irish composer John Buckley with the support of the Arts Council, and in 2014 held a successful choral composition competition for Irish composers.

Mornington Singers has established itself as one of Ireland’s leading choral ensembles. In addition to its own concert programmes the choir has sung in live performances of video game music, at Electric Picnic, on film soundtracks and television and in concert with Andrea Bocelli, Lesley Garrett and David Puttnam. Competition performances have included the International Baltic Sea Choir Competition, Arezzo International Choral Competition, the Florilège Vocal de Tours, Maribor International Choral Competition and, closer to home, the international choral festivals of Cork, Derry and Sligo.

Founded in 1997, Mornington Singers takes its name from the first Earl of Mornington, Garret Wellesley, who was the first Professor of Music at Trinity College Dublin.

Orla Flanagan

Orla Flanagan is Assistant Professor of Music at Trinity College, Dublin and has conducted Mornington Singers since 2002. Orla holds an Advanced Diploma from the Kodály Institute, Hungary and a Doctorate of Music in Performance from the Royal Irish Academy of Music.

Winner of the McCurtain & McSwiney Award at the Cork Choral Festival’s Fleischmann International Trophy Competition on multiple occasions, Orla was also awarded a special prize for interpretation at the 10th International Choral Competition, Maribor, Slovenia.

In addition to her work with Mornington Singers, Orla gives choral workshops, adjudicates at festivals in Ireland and internationally, and has conducted professional ensembles including Milltown Chamber Choir, EnsemBéal and the National Chamber Choir of Ireland.

Andrew Johnstone 

Andrew Johnstone read music at Oxford University where he was organ scholar of Worcester College and studied organ playing with Thomas Trotter. From 1989 to 2005 he was assistant organist successively at Dublin’s two Anglican cathedrals. He is now assistant director of music at St Bartholomew’s Church, Ballsbridge, and appears regularly as organ accompanist with the Mornington Singers and other choral groups. He has performed throughout Ireland and the UK, as well as in France, Germany, New Zealand and the USA, and has given the Irish premières of organ works by Francis Jackson, Calvin Hampton, Guy Bovet and Johann Sebastian Bach. Andrew is a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists.