EU50: Ár nAmhrán/Our Anthem
We are delighted to announce a very exciting, large-scale collaboration planned in Laois to celebrate EU50: Ár nAmhrán/Our Anthem onTuesday 9 May.
This event is a partnership between Laois Education Support Centre, Music Generation Laois, Laois School of Music, Laois Partnership, Laois Offaly ETB Local Creative Youth Partnership and Creative Ireland Laois.
5 Primary School choirs, a Junior Orchestra, an Intermediate Trad Group and an Intergenerational Ukrainian Choir will gather in the Dunamaise Arts Centre, PortlaoiseonTuesday 9 May to perform Ode to Joy as a collective, livestreaming at 12 noon to over 160 schools in the catchment area of Laois Education Centre across Laois and parts of Offaly and North Tipperary. This livestream link will also be available to parents, families and the wider community. We will forward this link to schools in the coming days.
The livestream will start with the screening of a pre-recorded short film, documenting the learning and preparation phase of Ode to Joy in some of the participating Primary Schools.
The Anthem will then be performed as 2 instrumentals and 3 sung versions in Irish, Ukrainian and English as follows:
- Instrumental Classical Performance- Laois School of Music Junior Youth Orchestra and Ballyadams NS Woodwind Students.
- Singing as Gaeilge- Singers from St. Colmcille's NS, Errill; Camross NS; Killanure NS; Rushall NS.
- Instrumental Trad Performance- Music Generation Laois Intermediate Trad Group
- Singing in Ukrainian- Mallows Intergenerational Ukrainian Choir
- Singing in English- Full Ensemble
Total - approx. 180 singers/musicians.
An instructional video to help schools learn the anthem in English and as Gaeilge has been sent to all our schools.
Following the performance, the livestream audience will be invited to stay on-line for a preview of entries into the Short Film Documentary Competition, an initiative by Laois Partnership and Communicating Europe Initiative, supported by Laois Offaly Local Creative Youth Partnership.
The call-out for entries challenged young people in County Laois to get creative by shining a spotlight on how the EU affects their community. The films will be screened in full in the Dunamaise Arts Centre at a separate event on the evening of 9 May.
If your school wishes to join the livestream, please register at this link https://forms.gle/L4cSRHNGNXLP7AgH6.
We will call out participating schools at the live event. We are also asking schools to record a short clip of their classes singing along to the livestream and send it to us and we will create a video of all the clips we receive. Schools might consider raising or displaying EU flags when the anthem is performed. Schools may also wish to share their performances on social media during May 2023, using the hashtags #OurAnthemEU50 and #LESCbelonging.
We would be delighted if you tagged Laois Education Support Centre in your posts and we will share them. A selection of performances will be showcased on the EU50 webpage and on Government social media channels.
We really hope you can take part.