“My Harmony North experience” by Pearse McFall

My Harmony North experience has been very fun and surreal. A choir made up of eight different schools in North Belfast with at least 200 pupils is anything but remarkable.

Pictured with me is Sean Corrigan and the famous pianist Barry Douglas who is one of the founders of Harmony North.

I have been privileged to be involved in many forms of entertainment involving the arts from a young age but never have I been involved in something such as poignant as this.

Harmony North unites young people from all different parts of the community. These are young people from different genders, religion, culture and musical ability and it completes this all through our love for singing.

When I was first told about this project, I was very sceptical on how a choir of this size would work. However in the few months that we have been rehearsing together and hearing the music and sound we have been creating has proven me wrong.

I was nervous at our first rehearsal, as I was singing with such a large group and did not know how my singing ability would compare to everyone else’s in the group. However after meeting our choral director, Donal Doherty any nerves felt were soon forgotten. Donal uses a fun but very professional approach with us all and with such a large group can be very difficult but he manages to keep us all engaged throughout each rehearsal guiding us to use or voices to the best of our ability.

Each school’s music teacher also plays an important role; it is they who make sure that we are confident with each of our parts. This has been evident with our Music teacher Miss McGoldrick who works hard taking care that each boy in the choir from Edmund Rice College knows their own part and encourages us to be confident vocalists.

Along with other members of Harmony North, I was picked to perform as a small panel of ten pupils at the U.S consulates residents in Belfast. This was Harmony North’s first official performance; to say I was nervous was an understatement. The atmosphere on the bus to the venue was strange. There was some small talk among us all but you could tell everyone was worried and anxious of what was ahead, we had no idea what to expect.

When we arrived at the gates of the U.S consulates residence, we were greeted by security and then led into the house where we prepared for our performance. It was clear these were very important guests, some of which had travelled far to be here. It was strange but exciting to be in the company of these people. Donal had such a great presence and a clear confidence in us all, it was very reassuring and calming. After a short introduction to the guests we sang two selected pieces from our repertoire. The performance seemed to go down well and everyone seemed very impressed with us.  After we had performed there was a great buzz among all of the Harmony North members, we were so proud of what we had achieved in that small moment, laughing, smiling and joking about with each other. These are young people who like me, had never met or spoken to each other before this project was created, it was at this moment I started to see what this choir is all about, bringing young people together and uniting us as one.

I have also been chosen to represent our school and Harmony North with a performance in London taking place at the end of February. I am extremely proud and privileged to be chosen for this, as only twenty students have been the selected to attend. I am excited for this trip and cannot wait to show the talent and quality of young people we have here in North Belfast.