Giovanna Feeley is a professional singer, choral director, and educator, with over 20 years' specialism in liturgical music. She commenced church music ministry at the tender age of seven as an instrumentalist in her local Dublin church. She began singing studies with Jody Beggan at the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama, continuing with Irene Sandford and Virginia Kerr of the Royal Irish Academy of Music. She has performed and recorded with a wide variety of ensembles, including Our Lady's Choral Society and Maynooth Chamber Choir as choral soprano. Solo soprano engagements include Fauré's Requiem, Handel's Dixit Dominus, Jenkin’s The Armed Man and Vivaldi's Gloria.
Giovanna directed Ashbourne Church Choir from 2003-2021, a 40-strong ministry group broadcasting regularly on RTE. The choir recorded a sell-out charity Christmas CD, introduced a parish hymnal and congregational singing into their local community, and served every Sunday and feast of the Church year. In 2018 she established Cór na Mí, a choral society for south-east Meath & north Dublin, and was appointed director of BUVINDA Meath County Council & Friends Choir, a multi-genre workplace choir and Cór na Bóinne, a choir of serving and retired education personnel. She is the founding director of Meath Children's Choir and Meath Youth Choir with Music Generation Meath, and also directs DIVISI, a female vocal trio specialising in close a capella harmony and corporate events. She is also the founder and conductor of Schola Hyberniae, a semi-professional choral ensemble specialising in liturgical chant and early polyphony.
She holds a First Class Honours Master’s Degree in Theology, specialising in Liturgical Music. In addition, she holds Performer's Diplomas in both Pianoforte (AVCM) and Voice (ARSM). She also holds a Diploma in Community and Group Music Teaching from the Royal Irish Academy of Music, awarded with Distinction. In 2021 she was awarded a doctoral scholarship to DCU to complete her PhD in liturgical music, and is also a lecturer in liturgy in the School of Theology, Philosophy and Music.
Giovanna completed undergraduate studies at Mater Dei Institute of Education, Dublin, and taught at second level for seven years before taking on the full-time role of Parish Pastoral & Liturgical Coordinator in Ashbourne/Donaghmore Parish, Diocese of Meath, for a further six years. In 2005 she began postgraduate studies at the Pontifical University, Maynooth, where she served a term as Acting Director of Sacred Music. She was Invited Lecturer in Pastoral Music Ministry at St Patrick’s College, Thurles, from 2008 to 2010, and in 2007 she was appointed Associate Director & Lecturer in Pastoral Theology at the Pontifical University, for a period of ten years. During this time, she served as a member of the National Council for Liturgy of the Irish Bishops’ Conference, the Council of the Irish Church Music Association, the Diocese of Meath Pastoral Renewal & Adult Faith Development Team and the Archdiocese of Dublin Liturgy Commission.
Community and voluntary service is very important to Giovanna. She hosts multiple charity concerts with her singers each year, and has raised nearly €10,000 for local and national charities in the past five years alone, including Ashbourne St Vincent de Paul, Irish Heart Foundation, and Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind. She has volunteered with the ISPCC, CARA Programme, Irish Deaf Choir, and Ashbourne Cardiac First Responders. She currently gives of her time as a lector in her parish of Ashbourne-Donaghmore, and handmakes blankets for memory boxes of babies who have died at or shortly after birth for the charity Féileacáin.
She works extensively in music and is in high demand as a singer, director, and liturgical music formator. She is a a frequent workshop facilitator at the Irish Church Music Association Summer School and designs and delivers training programmes and music education programmes in schools, dioceses, and community settings. She is a consultant with the adult learning body AONTAS and works with their education department in facilitating learner voices. She is a reviewer with BIAPT, the British and Irish Journal of Practical Theology, a regular columnist with The Irish Times, and writes on liturgical, musical, and pastoral matters.
Giovanna directed Ashbourne Church Choir from 2003-2021, a 40-strong ministry group broadcasting regularly on RTE. The choir recorded a sell-out charity Christmas CD, introduced a parish hymnal and congregational singing into their local community, and served every Sunday and feast of the Church year. In 2018 she established Cór na Mí, a choral society for south-east Meath & north Dublin, and was appointed director of BUVINDA Meath County Council & Friends Choir, a multi-genre workplace choir and Cór na Bóinne, a choir of serving and retired education personnel. She is the founding director of Meath Children's Choir and Meath Youth Choir with Music Generation Meath, and also directs DIVISI, a female vocal trio specialising in close a capella harmony and corporate events. She is also the founder and conductor of Schola Hyberniae, a semi-professional choral ensemble specialising in liturgical chant and early polyphony.
She holds a First Class Honours Master’s Degree in Theology, specialising in Liturgical Music. In addition, she holds Performer's Diplomas in both Pianoforte (AVCM) and Voice (ARSM). She also holds a Diploma in Community and Group Music Teaching from the Royal Irish Academy of Music, awarded with Distinction. In 2021 she was awarded a doctoral scholarship to DCU to complete her PhD in liturgical music, and is also a lecturer in liturgy in the School of Theology, Philosophy and Music.
Giovanna completed undergraduate studies at Mater Dei Institute of Education, Dublin, and taught at second level for seven years before taking on the full-time role of Parish Pastoral & Liturgical Coordinator in Ashbourne/Donaghmore Parish, Diocese of Meath, for a further six years. In 2005 she began postgraduate studies at the Pontifical University, Maynooth, where she served a term as Acting Director of Sacred Music. She was Invited Lecturer in Pastoral Music Ministry at St Patrick’s College, Thurles, from 2008 to 2010, and in 2007 she was appointed Associate Director & Lecturer in Pastoral Theology at the Pontifical University, for a period of ten years. During this time, she served as a member of the National Council for Liturgy of the Irish Bishops’ Conference, the Council of the Irish Church Music Association, the Diocese of Meath Pastoral Renewal & Adult Faith Development Team and the Archdiocese of Dublin Liturgy Commission.
Community and voluntary service is very important to Giovanna. She hosts multiple charity concerts with her singers each year, and has raised nearly €10,000 for local and national charities in the past five years alone, including Ashbourne St Vincent de Paul, Irish Heart Foundation, and Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind. She has volunteered with the ISPCC, CARA Programme, Irish Deaf Choir, and Ashbourne Cardiac First Responders. She currently gives of her time as a lector in her parish of Ashbourne-Donaghmore, and handmakes blankets for memory boxes of babies who have died at or shortly after birth for the charity Féileacáin.
She works extensively in music and is in high demand as a singer, director, and liturgical music formator. She is a a frequent workshop facilitator at the Irish Church Music Association Summer School and designs and delivers training programmes and music education programmes in schools, dioceses, and community settings. She is a consultant with the adult learning body AONTAS and works with their education department in facilitating learner voices. She is a reviewer with BIAPT, the British and Irish Journal of Practical Theology, a regular columnist with The Irish Times, and writes on liturgical, musical, and pastoral matters.