Navan Choral Festival attracts crowds

This year’s Navan Choral Festival has been hailed as one of the most successful to date. The festival has grown from a one day event to a five day festival in its 37th year. The choral festival attracted competitors from the four corners of Ireland, with one choir, the Alma College Choir, travelling from Michigan USA to compete, testimony to the growing popularity of the event. The prestigious National Choir of the Year competition, sponsored by the Rotary Club of Navan, was won by Waterford Institute of Technology.

This year saw the introduction of an exciting new competition 'Young Opera Voice'. This competition meets one of the Choral Festival’s core objectives, which is to promote and assist young singers at the start of their careers, to showcase their emerging talents and to provide young artists with performance opportunities. The competition was won by Sarah Brady.

Choral singing is alive and well and reaching high standards due to the hard work and commitment of music teachers and choir directors. Teachers and choir directors recognise that Navan Choral Festival has reached national and international prestige and participation is becoming one of the highlights in their musical calendar. The work and commitment of piano and solo singing teachers must also be commended for the encouragement they give their students to participate in and achieve high standards of performance.

The Irish and International adjudicators at the Choral Festival were most impressed by the high standards of all who participated in the competitions.

As the Choral Festival continues to grow, the benefit to the local economy grows also. Hotels and cafes must be commended for the way they dealt with the influx of people. Navan Choral Festival would like to thank their many sponsors for their continued support and generosity, and also the local Gardaí for their assistance with traffic management which minimised disruption to the town. Thanks are also due to the many volunteers who facilitate the smooth running of the event over the five days.

“As the number of entries are increasing every year, the potential for the Choral Festival and for Navan is huge,” says Festival Director Sean Lynch, “it has gained a national and international reputation as one of the most prestigious festivals of its kind”.

Local schools who took part in the competitions included St Stephen’s NS, Johnstown, Duleek Girls NS, St Andrew’s NS, Curraha, Loreto St Michael’s and St Peter’s Dunboyne.