Choir Description

Love singing but need encouragement? Join the New School’s Sing Your Heart Out Choir and your nerves will disappear! The Choir is led by a renowned choral director and focuses on music from the contemporary, gospel and world traditions. Join it and you’ll have the opportunity to sing some great songs with others, to find and improve your voice, to spend an hour and a half every week ‘singing your heart out’ and making new friends in the process, to improve your health and well-being*, and to perform in public for fun and entertainment.

Each class features:

• Lively warm-ups to strengthen your voice and build your technique
• Call & response singing
• Learning to harmonise
• Soloist-choir interplay

The Choir has worked on and performed a huge range of songs in different genres, and here are just a few of them.

• ‘Africa’ – Toto
• ‘Adiemus’ – Karl Jenkins
• ‘Amovolovo’ – Zulu protest song
• ‘Both Sides Now’ – Joni Mitchell
• ‘Bridge over Troubled Water’ – Paul Simon
• ‘By the Rivers of Babylon’ – Traditional
• ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ – Lennon/McCarthy
• ‘Didn’t Leave Nobody but the Baby’ – Trad
• ‘Don’t Fence Me In’ – Cole Porter
• ‘​Freedom Is Coming’ – South African protest song
• ‘From Now On’ (from The Greatest Showman) – Pasek/Paul
• ‘Hallelujah’ – Leonard Cohen
• ‘Hooked on a Feeling’ – Mark James
• ‘Hush, Hush’ – Traditional
• ‘I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For’ – U2
• ‘In the Highways, in the Hedges’ – Traditional
• ‘Kiss from a Rose’ – Seal
• ‘Love Is in the Air’ – John Paul Young
• ‘My Love Is Like a Red, Red Rose’ – Burns/Douglas
• ‘Non Nobis Domine’ – Patrick Doyle
• ‘Oh Happy Day’ – Edwin Hawkins
• ‘Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head’ – Bacharach/David
• ‘Run’ – Snow Patrol
• ‘She Moved Through the Fair’ – Traditional
• ‘Sloop John B’ – Bahamian Folk Song
• ‘Something Inside So Strong’ – Labi Siffre
• ‘The Sound of Silence’ – Paul Simon
• ‘Swing Low Sweet Chariot’ – Traditional
• ‘Take Me to Church’ – Hozier
• ‘Thapelo’ – Sotho traditional song
• ‘​To Make You Feel My Love’ – Bob Dylan
• ‘Use Somebody’ – Kings of Leon
• ‘Viva la Vida’ – Coldplay
• ‘Vois sur ton chemin’ – Bruno Coulais
• ‘Walking on Sunshine’ – Kimberly Rew
• ‘Wayfaring Stranger’ – Traditional
• ‘We All Stand Together’ – Paul McCartney
• ‘Whispering Hope’ – Septimus Winner
• ‘With a Little Help from My Friends’ – Lennon/McCarthy
• ‘With or Without You’ – U2

Week by week the course builds as new skills are applied and the songs grow. At the end of each term (in December, March/April and June) the Choir showcases what they have been working on in concerts at the school for friends and family, in addition to performing in our End-of-Year Student Concert at the National Concert Hall – and there are other performance opportunities during the year.

The Sing Your Heart Out Choir is great on its own, or you can take part along with private (one-to-one) vocal tuition at the New School or with one of our vocal workshops. (Students concurrently enrolled for other tuition at the New School receive a 20% discount off the fees for school ensembles.) Although previous choir experience and music reading are not required, ideally new members will have taken some private voice/singing lessons or our Introducing Singing for Adults course before joining it.

*    Numerous studies have demonstrated the benefits – both psychological and physiological – of choral and group singing, including ones published by the Royal Society of Open Science, the Journal of Public Mental Health and the University of Limerick.

Assessments

Informal assessments of prospective new Choir members take place the week before the Choir begins each term, on the following dates:

First Term: Thursday, 25 September 2025 at 6.30 pm
Second Term: Thursday, 8 January 2026 at 6.30 pm
Third Term: Thursday, 16 April 2026 at 6.30 pm

Please complete an Enrolment Form to join the Choir, and we will contact you about these assessments.

Questions about the Choir?

CONTACT US

or call us on (01) 478 1884.

Previous Performances

YouTube videos of previous Sing Your Heart Out Choir performances in the National Concert Hall.

2025

2023

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

Cathy McEvoy, Director

Cathy is a full-time musician, arranger, composer and educator, with extensive gospel and choir experience. She holds an honours Music degree from Trinity College Dublin and a Masters in Composition from NUI Maynooth, and she has additionally studied both choral and orchestral conducting with maestros such as George Hurst (UK), Axel Theimer (Austria/US), Robert Houlihan (Ireland) and Rodolfo Sanglimbeni (Venezuela). In addition to directing the school’s Sing Your Heart Out Choir and Company Choirs for our Music at Work programme, Cathy also directs Gardiner Street Gospel Choir, Portmarnock Singers, Sandymount Gospel Choir and The Gospel Project. She has been the recipient of several arts awards, including an Artists Residency at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in 2018, a Travel and Training Award from the Arts Council of Ireland in 2016, and an EU Youth in Action in Award which allowed her to avail of Community Arts training in 2014. She has also worked as a vocal coach for both the Abbey Theatre and RTÉ Radio Drama and is on the Artists’ Panel of the National Concert Hall’s Music in Mind Programme. In addition, Cathy maintains a busy schedule as a freelance fiddle player, performing with a great number of traditional, roots and bluegrass bands, as well as the Dublin Symphony Orchestra, among others. Well-known artists with whom she has performed include the Manic Street Preachers, Mary Coughlan, Eleanor McEvoy and Ronan Hardiman (Lord of the Dance). Cathy has taught with the New School since 2011.

Jennifer McMahon, Director

Jennifer’s love for music began at an early age, learning music theory via recorder at the age of seven. Her curiosity would bring her to lessons in piano and guitar before committing to voice as her principal instrument in her teens. She went on to receive a BA in Jazz Performance from Newpark Music Centre and an MA in Contemporary Performance (Production Concentration) from Berklee College of Music, where she studied alongside such notable jazz musicians as Olga Roman (voice), Perico Sambeat (sax) and Javier Vercher (sax), to name a few. She was recently featured by the college for her work as founder of the non-profit organisation, Irish Women in Jazz. Jennifer currently works as both a vocalist and composer, and she has a keen interest in storytelling through music. She began writing songs in her teens, eventually releasing her first self-produced album in 2019 and her sophomore EP in 2024. Supported by the Improvised Music Company and the European Cultural Fund, Jennifer has recently been working on projects on the theme of nature and narratives around women through time. With a passion for learning, she is currently studying Scoring for Film, TV and Video Games and continues to perform regularly both in her own projects and in various ensembles.

Josh Johnston, Assistant Director, Accompanist

Josh is an acclaimed Dublin-based pianist, singer, choral conductor, arranger and composer. He has worked with musicians across the musical spectrum – including Kíla, SJ McArdle, Breda Mayock, Keith Mullins, Peadar King, Maggie Breheny, Truly DiVine, Stewart Agnew, Hank Wiedel and Ronan Swift, among others – and is equally at home in jazz, folk and rock. He can be heard singing and playing on many albums, including The Shape of Things (2010), Asylum Harbour (2008), Notes Home (with violinist David MacKenzie, 2008) and Close Your Eyes (with Truly DiVine, 2016). Josh has directed three chamber choirs (the most recent being the Rosney Consort), is a member of The Lazy Band and The Gospel Project, and is the organist and director of music at Dublin Unitarian Church.

2025-2026 Choir Schedule

Thursdays 6.30 – 8 pm

Full Year (30 weeks)
2 October 2025 – 18 June 2026
First Term (10 weeks)
2 October – 11 December 2025
(No class on 30 October – Mid-Term Break)
Second Term (11 weeks)
15 January – 26 March 2026
Third Term (9 weeks)
23 April – 18 June 2026

2025-2026 Choir Fees

1. Students concurrently enrolled for private or group tuition at the New School receive a 20% discount off the fees for school ensembles. If you are interested in vocal tuition in addition to the Choir, see our Voice (Singing) Tuition page for more information.
2. Students have the option of paying an initial deposit and distributing payments by means of post-dated cheques or credit/debit-card payments (in either case, payments are made on the first day of each month). Single term payment plans are accepted only if enrolment takes place before the Choir begins each term (2 October 2025, 15 January 2026 or 23 April 2026). Although there are no finance charges, payment plan fees include an additional processing charge of €8 per instalment payment.

Enrolment

Enrolment in the Sing Your Heart Out Choir requires a completed Enrolment Form and full payment of the ensemble fee or payment plan arrangement, if applicable. Places in the Choir are limited, and we recommend early enrolment.

ENROL NOW

Late Enrolment
New members can join the Choir, subject to places being available, up to two weeks after it starts each term. Tuition fees for late-enrolling students depend on the number of classes remaining in the term or year. See the following pages for more information:

First Term Late Enrolment Fees
Second Term Late Enrolment Fees
Third Term Late Enrolment Fees

Purchasing a Choir enrolment as a gift?
Please complete a Gift Certificate Booking Form.

BOOK NOW

Questions about the Choir?

CONTACT US

or call us on (01) 478 1884.