Jan ☕🎼🎹☁️🏋️♂️On Wednesday in the early hours, we set off to Cork - to compete with our Chamber Choir Furiant at the international Cork Choral Festival.
https://artemusicale.be/ensembles/kamerkoor-furiant/
#corkchoral #singer #tenor #choir #music 🧵 1/8
Our "amateur choir" - 31 people out of 40 were able to go - went up against internationally renowned choirs of up to 70 singers, with professional entourages and serious funding. This wasn't the regular competition. This was the one where you need to audition just to get in.
https://www.corkchoral.ie/festival_choirs/?_choir_type=international-competition-choirs
#corkchoral #singer #tenor #choir #music 🧵 2/8
Choirs from music academies worldwide. Just two other amateur groups. Four days of singing - everything from memory, with choreography. Four+ performances a day, rehearsals in between, on and off the bus. We even rehearsed in a parking garage (our building wasn't accessible 😅).
#corkchoral #singer #tenor #choir #music 🧵 3/8
From hushed and intimate to full-on exuberant. South African prayer songs to rainforest soundscapes. Gospel, love songs. German, French, Latin, Afrikaans, Flemish, English - all from memory, a lot with choreography. Libraries, cathedrals, and everything in between.
#corkchoral #singer #tenor #choir #music 🧵 4/8
For the competition: three pieces - a 17th-century German work, a contemporary Latin piece, and one from home soil: a French work by a Brussels composer. Performed after 3 full days of non-stop singing.
#corkchoral #singer #tenor #choir #music 🧵 5/8
The result? 7th place - just 0.28 points behind 5th. What an experience. What a group. What choirs on that stage!
#corkchoral #singer #tenor #choir #music 🧵 6/8
The choirs above us had professional direction, selections, auditions. Our choir is open to anyone with musical aptitude and the will to give it everything. Scoring above 85% and not finishing last? For us, that's fan-tas-tic.
#corkchoral #singer #tenor #choir #music 🧵 7/8
After the competition: pure camaraderie. No egos, no posturing. Just musicians making music together - one of the most beautiful thing there is. On the bus home to Belgium now, looking forward to seeing my partner again, but I'm definitely gonna miss this rush.
#corkchoral #singer #tenor #choir #music 🧵 8/8