David Curtisgetting ready to sing out the festive season.
Choirs up and down the land will testify to the difficulties of getting men to join their ranks and the lack of a boys' choir culture in schools is often blamed. St Pius X Boys National School in Terenure, Dublin, manages to buck this trend with 54 boys involved in a thriving choir under choral director Anne Purcell. Two of these boys also sing with RTÉ's youth choir, Cór na nÓg.
David Curtis (11) from Knocklyon joined the school choir in third class and is in his second season with Cór na nÓg. His mother Rose says that though David loves singing, he often plays down the fact that he is in choirs. "When they do auditions for Cór na nÓg there are 10 girls to every boy," she adds. "The school is brilliant for fostering a love of singing but I think with boys there's always that fear of standing out."
"There's a mixed reaction," David muses when asked what his friends think of his singing. "Some of them think it's good and others think it's really weird. They ask me why I do it and I say because I get to meet really cool people. You get to make friends and go to really cool places and you get days off school." The highlight so far was being on stage with 600 other singers for Mahler's Symphony of 1000 at the National Basketball Arena. David was the voice behind a radio commercial for Cór na nÓg and his cherubic face has also adorned a commemorative An Post stamp.
His twin sister Laura also joined the choir this year. "I'm in the alto and she's in soprano so we do harmonies together when we practise." The siblings are in the throes of a busy festive season - in the past week they've performed Carmina Burana and Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra and recorded a Christmas special for TV. Their annual Christmas concert takes place this Thursday at 6pm at St Ann's, Dawson Street and they are back with the NSO for a lunchtime concert on Thursday 20th.
He's not sure which carol is his favourite but he loves Come All Ye Faithful. Does he like singing? "An awful lot. It helps take my mind off things." His mum believes both children get huge confidence from being in the choir. "Above all they always come away from choir happy. It makes them happy to sing." In conversation with Michael Kelly.
See www.rte.ie/performinggroups . Cór na nÓg perform tonight at the Amnesty International Carols for Freedom concert in Christchurch Cathedral.