Perfect pitch of musical pearls

Cork Choral Festival is more than competition, it is primarily about the joy of singing, writes Declan Townsend

Ateneo de Manila College Glee Club from the Philippines were one of the highlights of the Cork International Choral Festival. Picture: Michael MacSweeney

THE number of open competitions for Irish choirs in which a first prize was not awarded suggested to me standards had, perhaps, dropped at this year’s Cork Choral Festival … until I looked in the programme for the names of choirs which have been regular visitors to the festival and discovered their absence.