Brian,

 

I have been on two trips to Ireland and England and both times we used Peter Baldwin from Charter Travel to arrange our tour.  We were last with him in August 2008.  One of our concerts was a ticketed benefit concert for a charity in Bristol that resulted in a full house.  He can arrange and publicize concerts better than anyone else I know of.  He also arranges residencies at Cathedrals while their choirs are on holiday.   It's easy to schedule a concert in a church, but hard to guarantee that there will be an audience.  With Peter, our groups always had good groups of people in the audience to sing for, making for a better experience.  His company's website is http://www.charter-travel.com/

 

Best wishes with your tour,

Josh Melson

Brian,

We toured England in 2005 and participated in the Shrewsbury International Music Festival. It was a great experience. You should look into singing at Chester Cathedral, St. Mary's in Aylesbury, Southwark Cathedral, and of course St. Paul's. Our final performance was at St. Paul's and it was truly a once in a life time memory. Just remember that it's almost a 13 second delay in the sanctuary. There is also Salisbury Cathedral where Stonehenge is, but we didn't sing there.

Best of luck,

Bruce

Acalanes High School

Lafayette, CA

 Old St. James in Dublin is a beautiful space with great sound.  It's open to the touring public, so any performances there would be short and a cappella.  My chamber ensemble sang there in 2001 - it was quite lovely.

 

Dublin provides many exciting places to visit  --  Trinity, Temple Bar, St. Patrick's Cathedral, etc.  Oddly enough, my students (and I, as well) found Kilmainham Gaol fascinating and compelling.  Outside of Dublin, my students really enjoyed: 

 

The Gap of Dunloe

Powerscourt Castle and Gardens

Inish Mor

Clonmacnois

 

Enjoy your tour.

 

Jim Lunsford

Director of Choirs 

The Latin School of Chicago

For Ireland you should contact Cumann Náisiúnta na gCór/The Association of Irish Choirs.  They should be able to advse you and perhaps even give contacts.  Here's a link to them:

 

 

 

There is also Choral Ireland on Yahoo Groups.

 

 

Hope this helps.

 

David Monks

See and sing at Boxgrove Priory, Holy Trinity Bosham, and Chichester Cathedral.  Get in touch if you want to stay with choir families.

 

B 

Regarding places to sing in Ireland, the city of Galway on the west coast is always a favourite with travelling choirs.  There are a host of choirs there to hook up with while touring, as well as a multitude of beautiful churches to sing in with a long and rich history, like St Nicholas', where Christopher columbus prayed before setting out to find the states. Nationwide, there's  Chistchurch cathedral in Dublin, st Mary's Cathedral in limerick, Tuam and Galway Cathedrals. Galway also has a very appreciative audience for choirs, they're always well received.

Best of luck with it.