Summary
The three choirs which are combining to host this 42nd Street Choirs Festival, here in Dumfries, are Cairn Chorus, the CatStrand Singers and the SongWave Choir. Kate Howard is the music director for these three different choirs in and around Dumfries.
The three choirs which are combining to host this 42nd Street Choirs Festival, here in Dumfries, only occasionally sing together. On the occasion of this photograph, the members got together to rehearse four numbers in the parish church of KirkPatrick Durham, in preparation for a memorial gathering for a beloved member of two of the three. Not every choir member was able to get out, but this is the most contemporary image we could imagine of the combined membership, if not the only one extant.
Kate Howard, recently inducted into the Scottish Traditional Music Hall of Fame for her services to community (Kate has visited every one of Dumfries and Galloway’s 120 primary schools to communicate her love of music in both Scots and Gaelic), is also the music director for three different choirs in and around Dumfries. These choirs have different approaches to their music making.
Cairn Chorus exults in regional music, offering such concerts as their recent Long Live the Weeds and the Wilderness yet, the Galloway Sangstream, or the politically conscious Rise Up Singing, or socially conscious In Freenship’s Name. Founded in 2007, the choir rehearse in Moniaive, for their semi-annual concerts, in which they are delighted to perform with a variety of instrumentalists.
The CatStrand Singers enjoy an hour of song every Thursday morning at the CatStrand Art Centre, based in New Galloway. Although the choir have created a CD, and accompanying book, and have appeared on television, their remit is singing for the joy of singing, rather than performing.
The SongWave Choir ventured to a new Tuesday evening rehearsal venue in the autumn of 2025, at the KirkPatrick Durham parish church, which hosts a vintage jazz band rehearsal in the morning. Performing theme-based concerts, as in Spring 2025’s What do the tall trees say? or 2024’s festive Wassail!, the choir enjoys interspersing short readings and poetry between their a capella songs. Audiences, according to the feedback forms received at each concert, really love songs from the Georgian Caucasus, or the Dalmatian coast of Croatia, which the choir enthusiastically offer.
All three choirs are non-audition but although all invite participation, both Cairn Chorus and SongWave Choir are usually at capacity and they ask for enquiries from singers seeking to join.
