Jun 21, 2026 · 49 min · 13 segments
Chorus member and documentary maker Róisín Power opens the door into the world of the National Symphony Chorus of Ireland to ask why singers continue to give their time, their voices, and their hearts…
No entities detected.
Róisín PowerHost
David YoungGuest
Mark DooleyGuest
Leslie BishopGuest
You simply can't put into words how it feels to be in the middle of that incredible sound.
You can't find the words to express what that does to you as, as a person, how it feeds your soul.
And I think that's why people do it, because you're being taken out of yourself.
You're being taken away from the normal things that you're doing during the day.
The only thing you can do when you're singing in those concerts is concentrate on the music.
You can't-- Your head is full of the music, and it's full of concentrating and full of you trying to do your own thing.
So it takes all those other things, even for a temporary time, out of your head and puts something wonderful in, back into your heart.
[singing] Accessing the transcendent is something that is missing from lots of people's lives, and it's hard, harder to find, I think.
Um, and we offer a really, really good way to do that, you know, a really great way to commune with the thing that is beyond us, um, and that sense of, like, euphoria and elation that we all need in our lives.
But what is it about singing in a choir that is so nurturing to my soul, so calming to my nervous system?
Why do we do any art? It's the same thing, isn't it? It's because this thing, this is, this is a way to access, uh, the transcendent and for us to find a way to express something in ourselves that can't be expressed in any other way.
There's no thing which is the same as standing on a stage and singing this kind of music with that kind of orchestra, and that isn't to say it's, like, the best, but it's unique.
[laughs] That when you're singing in a choir of 130 people, your contribution is not really what it's about, and what you need is for people's individual contribution to dissolve into the collective.
And that feeling of dissolving yourself into the collective is a big part of why it's so great to do this.
Again, it's the same thing as, um, as, like, people not going to mass or, you know, what people get out of being in the crowd at a football match or at the rugby or whatever.
But it-- You know, in a way that's different from when you're a, a huge crowd watching a, a sports match.
You're, like, both in the crowd and also the people playing the game at the same time when you sing in a big chorus like this.
Because you're making the thing happen, you're the person who's participating, but you're also in this kinda giant group where your individuality is kind of merged with everyone else's to form the collective.
I actually can't really think of anything other than a really big choir where it's like that.
You simply can't put into words how it feels to be in the middle of that incredible sound.
You can't find the words to express what that does to you as, as a person, how it feeds your soul.
And I think that's why people do it, because you're being taken out of yourself.
You're being taken away from the normal things that you're doing during the day.
The only thing you can do when you're singing in those concerts is concentrate on the music.
You can't-- Your head is full of the music, and it's full of concentrating and full of you trying to do your own thing.
So it takes all those other things, even for a temporary time, out of your head and puts something wonderful in, back into your heart.
[singing] Accessing the transcendent is something that is missing from lots of people's lives, and it's hard, harder to find, I think.
Um, and we offer a really, really good way to do that, you know, a really great way to commune with the thing that is beyond us, um, and that sense of, like, euphoria and elation that we all need in our lives.
But what is it about singing in a choir that is so nurturing to my soul, so calming to my nervous system?
Why do we do any art? It's the same thing, isn't it? It's because this thing, this is, this is a way to access, uh, the transcendent and for us to find a way to express something in ourselves that can't be expressed in any other way.
There's no thing which is the same as standing on a stage and singing this kind of music with that kind of orchestra, and that isn't to say it's, like, the best, but it's unique.
[laughs] That when you're singing in a choir of 130 people, your contribution is not really what it's about, and what you need is for people's individual contribution to dissolve into the collective.
And that feeling of dissolving yourself into the collective is a big part of why it's so great to do this.
Again, it's the same thing as, um, as, like, people not going to mass or, you know, what people get out of being in the crowd at a football match or at the rugby or whatever.
But it-- You know, in a way that's different from when you're a, a huge crowd watching a, a sports match.
You're, like, both in the crowd and also the people playing the game at the same time when you sing in a big chorus like this.
Because you're making the thing happen, you're the person who's participating, but you're also in this kinda giant group where your individuality is kind of merged with everyone else's to form the collective.
I actually can't really think of anything other than a really big choir where it's like that.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.