I don’t think any DCU concert has been anticipated so eagerly or had so many ups and downs! It was our first Spring Concert since 2020 (we squeaked that one in by the skin of our teeth before lockdown);  our 2022 performance had been cancelled due to the impossibility of seating a socially distanced audience, the hundred-strong choir and the orchestra in the Vine. Our programme for that concert was fabulous – Sir Karl Jenkins much-loved work The Armed Man and Magnificat by John Rutter. A crowd pleaser for sure and a joy to sing! A year on we were ready to go with it again and this time everything was on track. Programmes ready to be printed, press articles and and publicity in full swing. Then ten days before the concert date our soloist, mezzo soprano Elizabeth McCormack, was forced to pull out of the performance and we had to find a replacement. Thankfully opera student and rising star Charlotte Bateman, a pupil of Ms McCormack’s, stepped in at short notice to save the day. And what a day (and night) it was!  The afternoon was busy with final preparations and rehearsals, and ticket sales were coming in fast and furious.  As the audience began to arrive our front of house volunteers (thank you Wendy and Kirsty!) did a wonderful job of selling the last few tickets and organising seating for everyone. I don’t think they could have fitted another person in.