FREE CHOIR CONCERT IN BELFAST-Everett Chorale and Lisburn Harmony

Don't miss a wonderful evening of choral music in the St Anne's Cathedral , a Romanesque Style Anglican Cathedral in the hearr of the Cathedral Quarter , you can admire a 40-metre stainless steel spire which was installed on top of the cathedral. Named the "Spire of Hope", the structure is illuminated at night and is part of a wider redevelopment planned for the Cathedral Quarter.

Repertoire will include: Ames: Amazing Grace / Quigley: Steal Away / Wyers: The Waking / Carlise: Crowded Table / Barnum: She Walks in Beauty / Ešenvalds: Be Thou My Vision / Flummerfelt: O Danny Boy / Pink Zebra: Fly Away Home / Quick: Loch Lomond / Rutter: A Gaelic Blessing / Wasburn: Tell My Ma

The Everett Chorale from Everett, Washington (USA) is celebrating their 60th Season. Known for their variety of repertoire, the Everett Chorale is a true community choir with members of many walks of life and generations. The Chorale performs three major concerts per season and also performs at many civic events and sings the national anthem for our sports teams. Our mission is to engage, inspire and educate our singers, audiences, and community through the power of musical performances emphasizing a historically and culturally diverse repertoire.

Dr. Heather MacLaughlin Garbes is currently Affiliate Assistant Professor at the University of Washington, where she helped develop and maintains the UW Baltic Choral Library. She is also Founder and Artistic Director of the Mägi Ensemble, a professional women’s ensemble that performs and records Baltic music from the countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Dr. MacLaughlin Garbes has presented at ACDA National and Divisional and College Music Society’s National and International conferences, the Library of Congress, the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies International conferences. She co-authored the chapter “Baltic Languages: Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian” in the book The Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet in the Choral Rehearsal (Scarecrow Press). Heather has conducted numerous collegiate and community ensembles in the Seattle, Chicago, and Houston areas and also currently conducts the Everett Chorale, the Finnish Choral Society of Seattle and Seattle’i Eesti Koor (Estonian). Dr. MacLaughlin Garbes has had the honor of being a preparatory conductor for the 2013 and 2018 Latvian National Song Festival, the 2024 and 2019 Estonian National Song Festival and the 2014 and 2018 Lithuanian National Song Festivals as well as the Artistic Director for the 2026 and 2021 West Coast Estonian Days Song Festival.

Lisburn Harmony Ladies’ Choir is a community-based non-auditioning choir, with around 85 women from all walks of life, ages and stages, performing songs from all genres, and sometimes even choreography, They have gone from strength to strength, winning festivals, raising thousands for charity and entertaining hundreds of people in Lisburn, Northern Ireland, and further afield in places such as Scotland, Spain and Germany.

Kirsty Orr has been working with choirs for over twenty years. Initially working with children’s choirs in primary schools, Kirsty formed her first adult choir in 2009. In 2026 they plan to be part of the Advent choral festival in Prague. Since forming her first choir, Kirsty has also formed Earlybirds morning choir – a fortnightly choir for women, Sing&Tonic – a well-being fortnightly choir and Hinch Harmony – a mixed voice community choir in Ballynahinch.

Kirsty also competes in choral festivals with Lisburn Harmony Ladies Choir and Harmony Too, and has recently begun adjudicating.