Il Coro Italiano di Dublino

Il Coro Italiano di Dublino was founded in 1986 by Dr. Rosa Maria Chicco-Ferraro, Deputy Head of Mission at the Italian Embassy. Initially, the choir was for the most part drawn from the adult students of Italian Institute in Dublin.

The choir had the privilege of performing the premiere of two works by composer Antonio Andriani, including his Messa in Onore di San Patrizio in the Pro-Cathedral in 1994 and in 2004 also performed there to mark Monsignor John Moloney’s sixty years’ service to the Italian community in Ireland.

Il Coro performs mainly in Dublin at venues that have included St Ann’s Church, Dawson Street, The Italian Institute, the Farmleigh Christmas Festival, the Defence Forces Carol Service in Arbour Hill Church in 2015, 2018 and 2023 and the Áras an Uachtaráin Summer Party in June 2023. Links with the Italian community have been maintained through performances at Club Italiano and at Lucan House on Italian National Day.

The choir has recently enhanced its Italian identity by performing songs associated with James Joyce and his works as part of the Bloomsday Festival in June. Joycean songs are included in Il Coro’s Summer concert. Members of the choir have also performed in various locations on Bloomsday including the Joyce Tower, Sandycove and Davy Byrne’s pub in Duke St. Joyce and his family lived in Trieste in Italy for 10 years and the Italian language remained their lingua franca thereafter.

Abroad, the choir has toured in Italy and Germany, singing in Tuscany, Lazio, Piemonte, Sicily, Bonn and Cologne. In 2017 the choir sang at the opening of the 21st Joyce School in Trieste at the invitation of Professor John Mc Court, while the highlight of 2018 was our performance in St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome.

The repertoire of the choir reflects its Italian ethos and identity and it strives to maintain this by including in its list operatic choruses by Italian composers such as Verdi, Puccini, Bellini, Donizetti, as well as Italian folksongs and madrigals. Il Coro’s repertoire also includes Sacred music and Irish traditional music in both English and Irish.