Navan Silver Band's annual concert on Sunday

This year's Navan Silver Band annual Christmas concert on Sunday night, 13th December, will see the band joined by some very special guests including St Joseph's Mercy Primary and Secondary School Choirs, celebrating their fiftieth anniversary. The concert will also feature other guest appearances from Ceoltoiri Carolan and Suzan Fitzsimons. This concert marks the start of the St Joseph's Primary School centenary celebrations and a renewal of old links with the Navan Silver Band. This musical link between the school choir and the Navan Silver Band started in 1985 with a combined concert in the Lyric Cinema when the choir was under the guidance of Sr Annunciata McGoldrick and the Silver Band was conducted by the late Victor Malirsh. These concerts became a sell-out and continued until 1990 when the venue became unavailable. The link continues to this year's choir as their conductor Ms Pauline Egan is niece of Sr Ciarán Egan who accompanied the choir on piano during all of the concerts held in the Lyric Cinema with the silver band and will accompany them again this year. The choir participated in last year's series of National Children's Choir Concerts and were also involved in the 2008 production of 'Les Miserables' with St Patrick's Classical School. Music and choir are long standing traditions at St Joseph's Secondary School. The All School Choir is a specialised group of talented students from first to sixth year who rehearse after school once a week. This choir has a very high standard and enjoys challenging choral repertoire. The choir was set up last year to sing for the school's production of Vivaldi's 'Gloria in D' where they joined forces with two fifth year choirs, soloists, and an accompanying ensemble that included harpsichord, organ, clarinet and trumpet. Last May, the choir competed in Navan Choral Festival where it was awarded first place in both the Foreign Language competition and National Youth Choir of the Year 2009. Ceoltoiri Carolan is a group of young harpists who have been playing together for over three years. They travelled to Bruges in Belgium in July '09 where they played two concerts and most recently performed in The Long Hall in Trinity College, as well lunchtime concerts in St James' Hospital, Dublin.