Heyy Sing Ireland Family! Aweiye back again or as you may know me ‘The Sing Ireland Instagram Takeover Girl’. I’m finally fully recovered after a very, very busy weekend at the Cork International Choral Festival and my goodness, I have a lot to talk about.
I started off by getting the bus down to Cork on Friday morning and quickly made my way to Freemasons’ Hall for 12pm, where I watched the beautifully talented UCC Singers perform some stunning tunes in their ONLY free concert of the entire weekend (lucky, if I’m being honest).
After the performance, I headed back to the accommodation I was staying at and posted my first Instagram story as part of the ‘Youth Committee Takeover’ I carried out over the course of the weekend. I had the most fun posting on the stories and I think the viewers enjoyed a change in content ;).
I then took a bit of a break for the afternoon and enjoyed some of the lovely local cuisines that Cork City has to offer (McDonald’s) and in the evening, I set out to my second concert of the day, Chamber Choir Ireland’s 7:30pm concert at the St. Mary and St. Anne’s Cathedral.
I feel my life is forever changed after that concert, I don’t know how I'd never seen them in concert sooner but they were nothing short of phenomenal. I particularly enjoyed the final piece they sang entitled ‘The Golden Hour’ by Ayanna Woods. This song sounded like what it must feel like to ascend into heaven and CCI did the song an unbelievable amount of justice.
Now that I had completed my first day of Cork Choral Weekend, I travelled back to Waterford on Saturday morning for my final rehearsal with my choir, Lumina ahead of our Sunday competitions. We competed in both the Mixed Voice and Church Music categories (and yes I posted on the Sing Ireland stories from rehearsal too).
Once this rehearsal was over, I paid a quick visit home and then hopped BACK on the Green Bus to Cork again to do some last-minute extra practice ahead of the competitions the next day.
Then came D-Day.
Sunday was 100% my busiest day as I had my two competitions, first of which was the Mixed Voice Competition which took place at 9.30am at Cork City Hall. I felt we sang very well and our performance was something to be proud of. However, before the adjudication was finished and our placement announced, I quickly rushed to the Clayton Hotel for 2:30pm (arriving out of breath even though it was a 3 minute walk away) to sing for the gorgeous Bon Secours Workplace Choir conducted by our lovely SIYC Chairperson, Rhea Kennedy.
We sang charming renditions of ‘The Winner Takes it All’ by ABBA and ‘Close to You’ by the Carpenters. It was right before we began our performance that I found out, via text, that Lumina placed 2nd in the Mixed Voice category (very Gen Z of me).
My chaotic day was far from over because immediately after killing some ABBA music at the Clayton Hotel, I rushed for another McDonald’s wrap and hightailed it to the Cork School of
Music for a final rehearsal before my second competition of the day, Church Music. I greatly enjoyed the rep we sang for this competition, especially ‘Gaude Mater Virgo Christi’ composed by Josquin des Prez which in my opinion is a certified Renaissance banger.
We unfortunately did not get the result we hoped for in this competition and placed 5th </3 but honestly? We were happy with ourselves when we came off the stage and that’s what counts the most. We will definitely be back next time, stronger, better and (hopefully) more musically accurate.
If you thought my Cork Choral shenanigans were over, then you’d be mistaken because after a little break to sit in my sorrows at Nando’s, I headed back to Cork City Hall where I sat with friends from Dublin Youth Choir and watched the Fleischmann results be announced.
The atmosphere in the room was electric, between the shouts of the UCC singers and DYC, the sound levels rivaled that of a sonic boom but that definitely added more to the experience. After watching the Vancouver Youth Choir receive 1st place with an astonishing score of 95% to win the Fleischmann, it gave me a warm feeling of pride and made me want to buy a bottle of maple syrup (I don’t like maple syrup, this is just for the love of the game).
Once the adjudications along with the closing gala were complete, it was time to head to the upstairs of the Clayton Hotel for the SESH! A celebration of the festival which allowed the choristers from all the different competitions and categories to come together to socialise and relax together, which after the hectic Bank Holiday weekend we had? Was very much needed.
The busyness of the weekend literally took me 3 days to recover from as a beautiful blend of exhaustion and excitement greatly tired me out but I would do it all over again in a heartbeat xx. Until next time Cork.