Portadown Male Voice Choir earns high praise at Cork International Choral Festival

The choir was placed second in the lower voice section for its performance of Exsultate Justi, a piece of Latin church music by the Italian composer Viadana and The Jovial Beggar, a 20th century piece written by English composer C Armstrong Gibbs.

Portadown Male Voice Choir, the oldest male voice choir in Ireland, has competed at Cork International Choral Festival on many, many occasions going back to the 1970's.

In 2016 the choir and its conductor Gordon Speers BEM were presented with a special certificate to mark the 90th anniversary of the choir's foundation and to acknowledge its contribution to a better understanding and acceptance of difference between communities in the north and south of Ireland through the language of music.

The choir has won this competition more times than any other choir.

As well as competing in the festival on Saturday morning, the choir gave a recital in the atrium of the Clayton Hotel in Cork and received a rapturous reception, calling for an encore.

The choir’s performances in Cork concluded with singing at a church service in Douglas, Co Cork on Sunday morning where members received the same rapturous reception.

Formed in 1926, the choir continues to go from strength to strength and brings joy to countless thousands of people as it maintains the highest of musical standards and competing at local, national and international festivals.