Press Coverage in 2011

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Press Coverage in 2010

Overview 56th Cork International Choral Festival 27 April-2 May
By Declan Townsend
One would never have guessed, watching the reactions of the capacity audience at City Hall on Sunday night, that unaccompanied choral singing is a minority musical interest. This concert, the last of the Gala Concerts that have become part of Director, John Fitzpatrick’s, legacy to the Festival, was all about singing, singing for the sake of singing, singing for joy. It was a concert that emphatically recognised the enormous personal fulfilment that comes from being part of a group that perfectly realises the wishes of poets and composers and successfully communicates these thoughts and ideals to the listener. Unaccompanied choral singing, being, essentially, a hobby/pastime/livelihood for participants rather than listeners, rarely attracts the same kind of audience attention that opera, musicals or orchestral music get. One would not have suspected this to be the case on Sunday night. There was not a spare seat in the house and the quality of the singing by eleven choirs from America, Finland, Russia, Germany, Norway, Philippines, Singapore, Czech Republic, Japan and Ireland, being of the highest quality, the audience reacted as enthusiastically as they might at an opera or a pop concert. All the competitions were over and choirs, letting their hair down, sang programmes of mainly light music that aimed to entertain-- and did. Download full article...

Press Coverage in 2009