In the new Lyric Feature documentary A Place in the Choir, chorus member and documentary maker Róisín Power opens the door into the world of the National Symphony Chorus of Ireland to ask why singers continue to give their time, their voices, and their hearts to this extraordinary ensemble as it celebrates its 40th anniversary.
Below, Róisín reflects on what inspired the piece...
When I joined the National Symphony Chorus of Ireland in 2022, I didn’t expect that one rehearsal would change the shape of my life. Standing in the middle of over a hundred voices, holding a borrowed score, I felt the room vibrate around me with warmth and feeling like I’d found something essential, something I didn’t even know I’d been missing.
This documentary began as a series of questions: Why do we do this? Why does singing together feel so powerful? And is this feeling shared?
To find out, I spent this year speaking to singers across generations: members who joined in 1985, those who arrived with me in the last few years, parents singing beside their adult children, and the lively, chaotic group of younger singers known affectionately as the "Spicy Nachos".
Each story is different, shaped by age, background, and life experience, but all return to the same truth: that singing in this chorus gives people a place to belong and access to something within ourselves that we can’t find anywhere else.
Some spoke of how the music we make can become a way to remember loved ones, to breathe again, or to find strength in community. One singer told me about losing her husband, and how Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius became a special moment of remembrance for her. Another member spoke about how choir became a place where she could keep going, providing routine and connection when everything else felt unsteady.
This documentary began as a series of questions: Why do we do this? Why does singing together feel so powerful? And is this feeling shared?
Others spoke of joy, friendship, challenge, and the thrilling terror of tackling massive works — from Mahler to McMillan, from Bach to brand-new commissions. And everyone, without exception, spoke about the strange, addictive magic of singing together.
To bring listeners fully into this world, I’ve woven in recordings from our own rehearsals and from our live concert broadcasts — the rustle of folders, whispered counting, the swell of 150 voices, and those fragile, electric moments when harmony locks in. These are the sounds that shape our lives as choristers.
A Place in the Choir ends with one powerful performance of my favourite piece, a final moment of shared breath and shared sound — a reminder of why we sing, and why this community has endured for forty years.
This documentary isn’t just a story for musicians. It’s for anyone who has ever found comfort in company, joy in shared experience, or a sense of home in unexpected places.
Listen to The Lyric Feature: A Place in the Choir, produced and presented by Róisín Power, on Sunday 23rd November 2025 on RTÉ lyric - it will be available after broadcast as a Lyric Feature podcast. Listen to more from The Lyric Feature here.
