Choral Festival underway in Navan

The 38th Navan Choral Festival is underway at various venues around the town, including the Newgrange Hotel, St Mary’s Church of Ireland, St Mary’s Church, Simonstown GAA Centre, Columbanus Hall and St Anne’s Resource Centre. Each year the Choral Festival attracts the cream of choral talent from the four corners of Ireland and this year entries for the various competitions have increased significantly. The Choral Festival concludes by hosting the prestigious National Choir of the Year competition, sponsored by Rotary Club of Navan, in the Newgrange Hotel at 7.30pm on Sunday 7th May.
Following on from the success of the Young Opera Voice competition in 2016, this competition has attracted a significant increase in competitor numbers for 2017.The competition aims to promote and highlight talented young opera and concert singers. Robert Dean, BA, ARCM and Russell Smythe FRCM, AGSM, will be adjudicating the Young Opera Voice competition and Adult Choir competitions this year. Robert is Professor of Singing at London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama as well as Artistic Director of Oxford Orpheus. Russell lectures at the Royal College of Music, London, and teaches Choral Scholars at King's College, Cambridge. He has a busy private studio with students who are currently singing on the most prestigious opera and concert stages around the world.
Throughout the five-day Choral Festival there are competitions for solo singing, opera singing, primary school choirs, post primary school/youth choirs and adult choirs. A day is set aside for the highly-regarded piano competitions. The Choral Festival is an opportunity for all the competitors to showcase their talent and have a meaningful experience in music and vocal performance. Navan Choral Festival is aware of the importance of Irish culture and, through the Irish Language choir competitions, demonstrates that Irish is a living language in the community.
Navan Choral Festival also strives to bring the Choral Festival to the general public by inviting them, to attend the competitions, free of charge and to experience and enjoy the richness of the many performances.
More details on www.navanchoralfestival.com.