David Brophy’s Frontline Choir

Watch David Brophy’s incredible Frontline Choir perform a spine-tingling version of U2’s “Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own”

Projected onto the walls of the wards of St. Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin, this video is a taste of the programme produced by Tyrone Productions that will air on RTÉ One later this Autumn.

Background to the video:

In March 2021, David Brophy began recruiting for a new choir, made up of healthcare workers. Based across the country, some 71 people are members of this choir. They hail from a wide range of medical professions and disciplines – there are neurophysiologists, staff nurses, clinical scientists, consultant paediatricians, hospital porters, finance managers, receptionists, therapists and directors of nursing in the choir – over 50 professions in all.

Over 40 healthcare institutions are represented. Staff from St. Vincent’s Hospital – Dublin, The Mater Hospital, Temple Street, Tallaght University Hospital, St Luke’s Hospital – Kilkenny, Mullingar Hospital, University Hospital Kerry, Caherciveen Community Hospital, and many more are involved, including nursing homes, care and community services and Mental Health Services.

From an initial rehearsal with the choir members on Zoom, with the help of Assistant Choir Director Róisín Savage, to the performance, filmed in July, that you can watch today, David and Róisín have been working closely with each choir member, who had to record each audio and video track individually.

Within the choir, a number of members have lost family members to Covid-19. Two members lost family members who were fellow healthcare workers and so the choir and David decided to dedicate this music video to the choirs’ colleagues and fellow healthcare workers in Ireland who lost their lives fighting against the virus.

Poignantly, the exterior wall within the St. Vincent’s University Hospital campus, on to which the video was projected, had previously served as a Covid-19 ward during the pandemic. One Staff member from St. Vincent’s is Nice Marie Tarugo – whose mother, Mariter Tarugo (also a staff member in St. Vincent’s) lost her life to Covid-19 in December 2020.

RTÉ One Programme details – see here for details.

David Brophy’s Frontline Choir 

Blown away by the bravery of the nation’s healthcare workers, David Brophy sets up his first ever nationwide choir as he hears their stories and puts a face to the people behind the PPE. 

Following on from the success of The High Hopes Choir, The Choir of Ages and David Brophy’s Unsung Heroes, world renowned conductor David Brophy is back with a brand-new three-part series. 

Throughout the course of the pandemic, the whole country has been in awe of the nation’s healthcare workers. When the world stopped, they were the ones who kept on going, despite the risks involved. Blown away by their bravery, David wants to give their voices a platform. With first-hand experience of how therapeutic music can be, he brings them together musically – setting up his first ever nationwide choir as he hears their stories and puts a face to the people behind the PPE. What really happened in the hospitals, nursing homes and care facilities of Ireland during the pandemic? What sacrifices did our healthcare workers and their families make? How are they coping after a year and a half of working under the highest pressure imaginable? 

Over the course of the series, David will meet with healthcare workers from across the country as they begin their journey in a Level 5 lockdown, initially rehearsing on Zoom. Despite technical difficulties and with the help of Assistant Choir Director Róisín Savage, the group creates a hugely emotive and powerful music video dedicated to their healthcare colleagues who lost their lives to Covid-19. The music video sees the choir sing an arrangement of the U2 song ‘Sometimes You Can’t Make it on Your Own’ and was fittingly filmed on the campus of St. Vincent’s University Hospital, projected onto the external wall of a building that served as a Covid-19 ward. 

As the country slowly opens up in line with Government guidelines, the series will watch on as the choir eventually meet for in person rehearsals. Bonding over their shared experiences they’ll begin to address their personal wounds from the pandemic and come together to perform at a very special one-off concert. The series will air on RTÉ One as part of their Autumn schedule.