Mayo International Choral Festival, West of Ireland

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to announce all events:-
Full Programme Download (.pdf, 3.2mb)

See our festival summary brochure
(2 pages)

Joe Mellett and James Mooney, Swinford are introduced to the concept of the festival

Committee members attended the ‘Mayo Alive’ festival, an interactive music and cultural festival celebrating the sights and sounds of Mayo. The Choral Festival had a strong presence with their colourfull dispaly of promotional backdrops, balloons and brochures. “The day was a great success in terms of networking” – said Eamonn Horkan, Chairman – “We got the opportunity to talk to a lot of people who had Mayo connections but were now living away from Mayo, particularly those living in Dublin. It was also a great way to meet other Mayo event organisers and swap information and ideas”.
He went on to say that a lot of interest was received from the many accommodation provides in Mayo who had stands at the event.Said Declan Durcan, festival coordinator “the whole day had a great feelgood factor and hats off to the organisers – we got the chance to showcase our festival to a Dublin audience with Mayo connections – we got a good position close to the entrance of the event, and allowed us to spread the news about the choral festival to a lot of people”

The festival runs from 24th – 27th May 2012.

Michael Ring TD, Junior Minister for Tourism and Sport officially launched the Mayo International Choral Festival which takes place in May 2012, at the Mayo Association Worldwide Convention in Hotel Westport. Minister Ring stated that as a major festival it is geared to attract a large number of choirs from abroad at the start of our tourist season, and would give a great impetus to the local economy in the early part of next year.

Minister Ring congratulated the organisers for developing the festival to this extent and assured that they would have his full support.
The Westport TD appealed to the various organisations involved in choral music in Mayo to get involved and help to make the festival an outstanding success.
Prior to the Minister’s launch, Festival Chairman, Eamonn Horkan, Castlebar, outlined the progress to date.
First of all, he thanked the Mayo Association World Convention Committee for giving the Mayo International Choral Festival the opportunity to launch the festival, particularly Sean Reid, Chairman, Michael Morley, Secretary and Donal Downes, who was his initial contact.
He asked the Mayo Associations worldwide to encourage choirs from their various countries, to travel to Mayo next year and partake in the festival.
Mr Horkan explained that the idea to host an International Choral Festival in Mayo came as a result of his involvement in organising the concert for the opening of the Mayo Memorial Peace Park with Michael Feeney M.B.E. With 7 choirs on stage at the Royal Theatre. He recalled  mentioning to Pat Jennings that Mayo could organise an International Choral Festival with all the great  facilities we had in Mayo – The Royal Theatre for a gala concert with all participating choirs involved. Mayo’s vibrant towns would provide accommodation and local choirs wouold host and arrange concerts with visiting choirs for various charities, the various concert venues, the schools and the regional college, the choirs to sing at religious services varying from small local churches to the larger ones like the Basilica in Knock. All combined would assure the Festival would be a major success.

Thus the seed was sown, a small executive committee was formed initially, to see if it was feasible, comprising Festival Chairman Eamonn  Horkan, Festival Director, Declan Durcan, Enda McDonagh, Treasurer, Ann Marie Gibbons, Mezzo Soprano, originally from Louisburgh,  (Ann Marie and her husband Australian-born Hugh Francis have returned to set up the ‘Mayo Vocal Academy’, where they tutor singers of every age in both Castlebar and Westport), Pat Jennings, Mayo Man of the Year, Gerry Needham B.L., and Cllr Eugene McCormack, Mayo Co. Council.
Mr Horkan continued: “Other sub-committees will be set up to cater for the various aspects of the festival, Finance, Music Venues and Performances. Failte Ireland came on board in a very positive way, both financially and with expertise. We are grateful to them especially Brian Quinn their Product Development & Marketing Manager and Grainne Kilcoyne for their great assistance in getting the Festival up and running. He stated that “the theme of the Festival is to allow choirs to meet with other choirs, to relax and enjoy a great weekend in the beautiful West of Ireland” ”The Festival will welcome Competitive and Non Competitive adult Choirs from all parts of the World, both male and female, who will visit Mayo to perform and also if they wish to take part in competition and various workshops connected with choral performance.

Top Choirs
 ”The best Choral Festival Adjudicators in Ireland and the U.K. were contacted and acquired to adjudicate the festival. Various Choral Festivals were visited and festival directors were contacted to give advice on the professional organising of a festival. Joe Kelly, Festival Director of the Sligo International Choral Festival, was most encouraging and offered to assist us in every way.
Mr Horkan continued: “I travelled to the Cornwall Male Voice Choral Festival where Festival Director Peter Davis was most welcoming and offered to come to Mayo for our festival next year and adjudicate. I had also the opportunity to canvass the 64 participating choirs for our festival. Thus far we have received nothing but encouragement from all quarters. Our website is  up since last week and after only four days we had a query from a University Choir in the Philippines who had planned to come to Europe in May next year and would like to include Mayo as part of their visit.
“We also have strong interest from two German choirs. We have contacted many overseas choirs who have been visited by some of  our choirs in Mayo and others who already have been in Mayo over the years and would like to come back. A key factor in  encouraging choirs to travel to Mayo will be if hotels organise good value package deals for the travelling choirs”, added Mr Horkan.
“The Mayo Festival is targeting over 2,500 U.K. choirs who have easy access to Mayo through Ireland West International  Airport Knock, and our dates are based on the U.K. bank holiday weekend 24th to 27th May 2012. To date we have a number of  U.K. Travel agents interested in organising groups to come to Mayo for the Festival”.
Mr Horkan went on to say “To quote a famous recent visitor to our country, President Obama, ‘Is Feidir Linn – Yes we can’.”

For more festival details, visit the festival website: www.mayochoral.com Email: info@mayochoral.comor contact Eamonn  Horkan 087 6683043

Pictured at the launch of the Mayo International Choral Festival (MICF) were Left to Right, back row, George Lee, Accompanist, Mayo Male Voice Choir, Michael Basquill, Mayo Male Voice Choir, Declan Durcan, Festival Director MICF, GerryNeedham, MICF committee member. Front row: Declan Marley, Mayo Association Galway, Cllr Eugene McCormack, MICF Committee member, Deirdre Lee, Music Director, Mayo Male Voice Choir, Minister Michael Ring, Ann Marie Gibbons, Mezzo Soprano, MICF Committee member / Mayo Vocal Academy, Eamonn Horkan, Chairman MICF. Photo: John Moylette.