Fleischmann Choir

The Fleischmann Choir was founded in November 1992. Initially called the Cork School of Music Symphony Orchestra Chorus, it sang in public for the first time on 22 April 1993 when it gave a concert with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra in Cork’s City Hall to mark the opening of the 40th Cork International Choral Festival. The programme was of music by Aloys Fleischmann – one of the founders of the Cork International Choral Festival and its long-serving Festival Director – who had died the previous year. Shortly after this concert, with the permission of the family, the choir was renamed in memory of the man who did so much to further the cause of choral music and choral singing in Ireland. The choir was
then led until 2013 by founder-conductor Dr. Geoffrey Spratt (former Director of the CIT School of Music
and Founder-Conductor of the Irish Youth Choir and Canticum Novum). Conor Palliser has been the conductor since 2013 and the choir has maintained the high standard and proud tradition of the choir while continuing to bringing pieces never before heard in Ireland to Cork audiences.

The Fleischmann Choir is delighted to have been invited to give the Opening Gala Concerts of the 2004, 2005, 2010 & 2019 Cork International Choral Festivals – not least because in both 2004 and 2010, it provided the opportunity to perform again works by Fleischmann, which the choir sang for its inaugural concert in It was particularly pleased that the Cologne Philharmonic Choir - with which it had already given concerts in Cologne, Dublin and Cork – was able to join the combined choral and orchestral forces of the Cork School of Music to perform Berlioz’s epic Te Deum for the opening of the Cork International Choral Festival in April 2005.

The Fleischmann Choir has achieved an enviable reputation for fulfilling its mission to perform the large-scale repertory for choir and orchestra.