Cork International Choral Festival

Thank you for the invitation to be on the international jury this year, I enjoyed it very much. Not just the company and expertise of the jury members or the camaraderie of the Cork Choral Festival team that I enjoy so much, but also the clear indications that choral music in Ireland is really improving. Ireland’s Choir of the Year has become a very valuable part of the Festival.

It was a great weekend. Particular thanks to you for fitting SCRUBS into the line-up for the Atrium – we really enjoyed it and we got a great response from the audience. Looking forward to next year.

I’ve already heard the excellent choral performances of the award-winning choirs on Facebook and I must say that the Cork Festival, with its fantastic atmosphere, is always among the most beautiful in the world. Congratulations!

It was a real pleasure to be in Cork and to experience the warmth and friendliness of everyone working at the festival.

Thank you very much for your hospitality in Cork. It was such a pleasure to be a part of the festival and we really enjoyed our trip a lot. We really appreciate all your hard work. We wish you all the best in the future and hope to see you again!

I would like to thank you for the invitation to be part of the jury panel at your prestigious festival this year. It was a great honour to judge the competition on this level and a very memorable experience for me to be back in Cork. You and your team took very nice care of me so I`m very grateful to you.

We extend the warmest thanks of all of us for both the wonderful hospitality you have provided us and the perfect organization of the festival. We spent 4 unforgettable days and we are happy for this. The Cork Festival is fairly one of the best in the world, since its programme was perfect. Congratulations again.

Delighted that the festival went so well – it is hugely important to the city and we love it when the choirs begin to arrive. It’s joyous.

Just a short note on behalf of myself and the Mornington Singers to say thank you for another unforgettable experience at the Cork International Choral Festival. We had an absolutely wonderful weekend, and as always it was impeccably organised and we were very well taken care of.

I would like to thank you for your beautiful festival. What a great spirit and professional organisation.

Thank you for these wonderful days in Cork and this festival! We had to judge one of the highest standards in the last years! Everything worked again relaxed and perfect!

Everything ran incredibly smoothly and it was a delight to see the Cathedral so full again for our Gala concert. I think, too, that the workshops worked incredibly well.

The selection of the choirs and the concerts was of a very high standard. It has been the best festival till now for me. We not only enjoyed the music but also our company of friends and the atmosphere of Cork and the kindness of the staff and volunteers. The festival formula of contact between young and old, local and foreign, skilled and less skilled singers and the respect for the different cultures, including your own Irish tradition works wonderfully. Here in our Flemish choir federation we start thinking of doing the same. It was all so good and I know the secret for all this. It is not the structure and organization that is most important. All things must be done by people. The art is to bring them together and to keep them together and that is only your great merit. I would say you are the heart of the whole festival. Thank you for making it possible for us to enjoy all that

Cork Choral Festival is part of our life by now; our first experience dates back to 2008 and every year we participate with great enthusiasm as the Festival offers us the opportunity to meet people with our same passion, by sharing with them 5 days of music, and not only. Also this year, our expectations were exceeded: concerts, competitions, masterclasses… 5 busy days, and full of great satisfaction. The Nano Nagle Chapel was lovely, where we listened to a concert for our first time this year. We are already looking forward to the next edition and what it will bring.

I count being involved a great privilege – as well as its being a real pleasure – and not least this year with the standard of those several top choirs so high. Huge credit to the festival team(s). I know that there are all sorts of bits, bobs and trouble-shooting things that go on that we as adjudicators don’t see, let alone when an air strike comes out of the blue just as you’re starting; so I hope that you now have a little time and space to reflect with due pride and allow yourself some gentle self-congratulation! It’s so well deserved.

We were delighted to make it down to Cork this year after the disappointment of not making it in 2018. We had a marvellous afternoon in the stunning surrounds of City Hall during the Mixed Voice Post Primary competitions and your team made everything more than easy for us, such military organisation and all done with the most fabulously welcoming and encouraging spirit. To come away with a very special handcrafted piece of choral art was just marvellous and it is on proud display here in Wesley, much-admired already. When we heard about a second prize, there was unbelievable excitement! Both of my brothers live in the ‘real capital’ so it was a lovely excuse to head back to Cork with my own kids for the prizegiving. Congratulations to you on all of your work John, what a superb festival year in, year out.

What could be more fun, more inspiring, more satisfying than a trip to Cork during the Choral Music Festival? The Festival offers a wealth of choral music experiences during the day, at night, in formal and informal settings. Each of the ticketed events is very special, but to wander through the city – from the chapel of the beautiful Nano Nagle Centre, to the city library, to the Crawford Gallery, to restaurants, to the atrium at the Clayton Hotel and hear heartfelt choral singing at each place is something that stays with us long after we have returned to Canada. We have so many favourite memories of the 2019 festival – we enjoyed each of the international choirs (particularly “Sing for your life” and the German choir) but the main ones centre around the contributions from Cork itself to the festival – the amazing opening gala, including the participation of the little children, the participation of “Madrigal 75” in another gorgeous Evocations concert at the North Cathedral, the students and little children of the CADA singing excerpts from Les Miserables, the Guys and Dolls quartet at both the meet and greet and at their own concert. We hope to return again.