RTÉ’s ‘All Island School Choir Competition’ Begins

The twenty choirs who will compete in the first All-Island Second Level Schools Competition have been named by RTÉ and the competition organisers, Co-operation Ireland. RTÉ Television will screen the four regional heats of the competition, each of which will feature five choirs, on successive Sundays beginning on Sunday October 18th at 7.30pm on RTÉ One in a series presented by Anne Cassin.

The four heat winners will then compete in the All-Island Final, a one-hour live programme from the newly-refurbished Ulster Hall in Belfast on November 15th at 6.30pm on RTÉ One.

According to Peter Sheridan, Chief Executive of Co-operation Ireland, the competition attracted entries from all corners of the island. "North, South, East and West are represented in the twenty choirs selected by the adjudicators to compete in the regional heats"

RTÉ's executive producer of the series, Tommie Gorman, hopes the programmes will give a sense of the work taking place in second level schools on both sides of the border. "We are hoping the competition will celebrate the ethos of teamwork and group activity promoted in school choirs "

The overall winner of the All Island Competition will receive £5,000 sterling and the three other finalists will each receive £1,000. The competition is sponsored by Titanic Quarter Ltd and is also be assisted by the Reconciliation Fund of the Department of Foreign Affairs.

The four adjudicators are Seamus Crimmins, RTÉ's head of performing groups, Dr Angela Feeney, music teacher and opera singer attached to the Munich State Opera, Mark Duley, choir master and organist at the Collegiate Church of St Nicholas, Galway and Dr Geoffrey Spratt, Director of the CIT Cork School of Music.

All choir participants must be full-time students of the entrant schools and each choir must have 20-40 members. Over 80 schools indicated an interest in competing in the competition. 42 schools each submitted a CD, featuring two contrasting works from which the adjudicators selected 20 choirs to compete in the Regional Heats.

The first of these heats will be shown on RTÉ1 on Sunday, October 18th at 7.30pm and will feature the choirs of Saint Louis Grammar School in Ballymena Co Antrim, Saint Dominic's High School in Belfast, Co Antrim, Carrickfergus Grammar School in Carrickfergus, Co Antrim, Saint Paul's High School in Bessbrook, Co Down and the Methodist College in Belfast, County Antrim all singing in the Methodist Church in Belfast.

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