Triumphant choir success for St. Matthew’s PS Drumsurn

St. Matthew’s Primary School Drumsurn have achieved huge success at the recent Coleraine Music Festival. 

This is such a huge accomplishment for a County Derry rural primary school. 

St. Matthew’s entered both their junior and senior choirs into five competitions and achieved a triumphant four first awards and one second award.

Richard Yarr was the adjudicator at the event. 

Mr Yarr is a highly respected music professional and is known for his outstanding roles as a producer and adjudicator and is enthusiastic about nurturing young talent and promoting classical music. 

Principal of St Matthew’s, Mrs Kealey shared her pride saying: “Mr Yarr's comments about the school choir were amazing. He said our school choirs were ‘bright and enthusiastic, beautiful dynamic variation and all-round excellent choirs’. Here at St. Matthew’s Primary School, we are just so passionate about music and choral singing. From the very young in Primary 1 to our older pupils in Primary 7, every child gets the opportunity to be part of the school choir. St. Matthew’s school choir reflect the hard work, dedication, and talent of all the choir members and their directors.”

The choirs are led and directed by both Miss Kealey and Mrs Kealey and both teachers are true believers that participating in a school choir can be such a rewarding experience that contributes to a child’s holistic development. 

“There is a huge range of physical, mental, and emotional benefits that children can gain from joining their school choir. Participating in a school choir can truly enrich a child’s life in many ways, such as improved academic performance, development of social skills, emotional well-being, discipline, responsibility, and physical development too,” Ms Kealey said. 

“Our school has always had a strong reputation for having developed and instilled the love of music in our pupils and encouraged them to be part of the school choir. We also had success in the past when we got through to the final heats of ‘School Choir of the Year’ on a few occasions. We take great pride in our music here at St. Matthew’s which permeates throughout the curriculum and our entire school community is just so proud too.”

Miss Kealey, who is a trained soprano and graduated from Queen’s University Belfast with a BA in Music, added: “I am absolutely over the moon and so incredibly happy for the boys and girls in both the junior and senior choirs. They worked so hard and have made me, the staff, and the wider school community so proud.”

All at St. Matthew’s are thrilled about the Choir’s recent success.

Mrs Kealey concluded: “It is just wonderful to see the positive impact that music has on all our students. We now look forward to some celebrations in the very near future and the opportunity to showcase our fabulous choirs again.”

For more information on the school and to see the children singing you can visit stmatthewsprimaryschool.com