Mr. John O'Kane:

It is funny that you mention Eleanor McEvoy. Eleanor started her career as a professional violinist and was a member of the NSO before going on to forge a career as a singer-songwriter. She is an unusual character and a very interesting musician on account of that.

The important thing to appreciate about the RTE choirs is that in contradistinction to the orchestras, the choirs are essentially non-professional; an amateur ethos governs the RTE Philharmonic Choir and the RTE Cór na nÓg. The Philharmonic Choir is full of people who are music enthusiasts, with real jobs, who come along once a week. They are deeply committed but their engagement comes from a love of music. They are also attracted by the opportunity to perform with a professional symphony orchestra, which is unique. They get to play big standard pieces of repertoire, great works of the music canon, which were written specifically for choir and orchestra together. That is how we deploy the choirs. It would be fair to say that the choirs are not really the natural career pathway for those who are interested in solo singing as a career. We do work with many well-known household names, singers across all genres, but they would work with us in the capacity of guest artists rather than as members of the choir.