Clare singers are Pitch Perfect for TG4

PITCH Perfect is a new TG4 show featuring two Clare girls, Suzanne Kenny from Sixmilebridge and Rachel Prior from Meelick.
The programme started on November 7 and is aired every Monday night. For the programme, singers were selected from GAA clubs and parishes around the country to come together as a choir to perform at Croke Park at the All-Ireland football final, before a crowd of 82,000.
Rachel says she really enjoyed the making of the programme. “It was probably the best experience of my life to be honest. It was absolutely brilliant. Everybody gelled from the beginning and it was like a big family.”
She said she was a bit awestruck on the day of the match. “It was surreal, standing in the tunnel waiting to go on. There were 82,000 people out there. I don’t know if I was nervous. I can’t even describe how I felt.”
Like the rest of the public, she hadn’t seen any of the episodes until they began showing on TG4.
The singers on the programme had two mentors, international soprano Niamh Murray and former musical director with Riverdance Colm Ó Foghlú. They trained the singers and moulded them into a choir to represent GAA clubs from all over the island.
Filming took place at locations including Maynooth College, the Gaiety Theatre and the National Concert Hall and with such notable guests as Anuna, Colm Wilkisnon, Riverdance percussionist Ian McTigue, barber shop quartet Four in a Bar, rock band Stand, Brian Kennedy, Fiachna Ó Braonáín and Seosaimhín Ní Bheaglaoich joining the mentors.
Pitch Perfect is not just a choral music programme but offers us an insight into how top county teams work and train to reach the ultimate stage –Croke Park. The series follows the movement of the championship with eight weeks until the final, with the GAA backdrop being offered by Dara Ó Cinnéide, Coman Goggins, Jarlath Burns, Seán Ó Domhnaill, Claire O’Connor, Donal O’Grady, Páidí Ó Sé, Sorcha Furlong and Mickey Ned O’Sullivan.