The Cork International Choral Festival is held annually in Cork, Ireland and features choirs from all over the world. About 5,000 choristers take part every year; they come from all over Ireland, from Britain, from the European continent, and sometimes from as far away as Africa, America, and Asia. Since its foundation in 1954, there have been about 3,500 choir entries. [1] The most recent festival took place in May 2025.
The festival was founded in 1954. It was part of An Tóstal, a national festival begun by Seán Lemass in 1952, as an attempt to lift the country from a period of economic depression and high emigration. This initiative was supported by senior Army officers and Bórd Fáilte, the Irish Tourist Board, which played a leading role in its implementation. [2]
The first Tóstal began in Cork in 1953 with a pageant in which a large section of the business community took part; there were sporting events, Gaelic League activities, and an arts programme which included a performance of Handel's Messiah performed by the English Hallé Orchestra under Sir John Barbirolli, with Our Lady's Choral Society of Dublin, involving 300 performers.
The following year the Choral Festival was established in its own right, and two years later the Cork Film Festival.
The Choral Festival set out to encourage music-making at local level, provide a forum for rural and small-town choirs, bring outstanding foreign choirs to Ireland, safeguard standards through Irish and international adjudicators, and establish cultural links within Ireland and internationally. From its earliest years the festival combined competitive and non-competitive performances, outreach concerts, and fringe activities across Cork city and county. [3]
A central aim of the festival has been the encouragement of new choral music. Since its foundation, competing choirs have been required to perform at least one work by a living composer from their own country. Between 1958 and 1961 two competitions for Irish composers were held, followed in 1962 by the establishment of the Seminar on Contemporary Choral Music, which commissioned up to four Irish and international composers annually to produce new works for performance at the seminar and festival. To date, more than 100 new choral works have been commissioned through these initiatives. [4]
Composers commissioned by the festival, particularly through its Seminar on Contemporary Choral Music (later Seminar on New Choral Music), have included Seán Ó Riada, Edmund Rubbra, Darius Milhaud, Henk Badings, Flor Peeters, Herbert Howells, Elizabeth Maconchy, William Walton, John Tavener, Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, Colin Mawby, Gerald Barry, Eibhlís Farrell, James Wilson, David Fennessy, Michael Holohan, Michael McGlynn, as well as more recent commissioned composers Enda Bates and Solfa Carlile.
In 1972 the festival introduced the Seán Ó Riada Composition Competition, named in honour of composer Seán Ó Riada. The competition invites original choral works submitted anonymously, with the winning composition receiving the Seán Ó Riada Trophy and a premiere performance as part of the festival programme. [5]
Past winners of the Seán Ó Riada Composition Competition have included Michael McGlynn, Michael Holohan, Rhona Clarke, Frank Corcoran, Séamas de Barra, Eoghan Desmond, Amanda Feery, Donal Sarsfield, James May, Peter Leavy, Norah Constance Walsh, Daragh Black Hynes, Laura Heneghan, Anselm McDonnell, and Donnchadh Mac Aodha. [6] [7]
The festival has also supported choral music in schools since the introduction of a schools competition in 1966, alongside an extensive programme of outreach and fringe events, including church services, recitals, and joint performances by visiting and local choirs across Cork city and county.
Each year amateur international choirs are selected to compete for the Fleischmann International Trophy. The selected choirs also perform non-competitively in a range of festival activities over the weekend, including fringe concerts, church and informal performances. As well as foreign choirs, the festival annually features up to 100 adult, youth and school choirs who participate in national competitions. In 2011, 16 foreign ensembles came to Cork to participate in the festival. [8]