The Cork International Choral Festival will soon be celebrating its 50th anniversary and contributions are being sought for a book telling the story of the Festival. Founded by Cork-based composer and academic Aloys Fleischmann, the Festival is a major feature of the Irish musical calendar and the composer’s daughter, Ruth Fleischmann, is now soliciting short articles from those who have participated in the event down the years.

She writes: ‘I have written to as many people as I had addresses for: to choirs of all categories in both parts of Ireland and outside the country; also to those who have served as adjudicators, to the composers commissioned to write for the Festival, critics who have reviewed it, organisers, sponsors and supporters, and members of the public. The present director, John Fitzpatrick, and the previous one, Geoffrey Spratt, have both written about their policies and experience; I have sketched my late father's years as Festival director from the documentation still available.

There will be many people involved in the Festival whom I have not succeeded in contacting: I would be delighted to hear from anybody who has participated in it and to get an account of your experience. You might like to describe your first encounter; if you have been a regular attender, your view of how the Festival has developed, whether it has had an impact on your choir, your experience of other participants, your views on standards, on the organisation. You may recall some particular incidents, whether pleasant or unpleasant; you might wish to compare the Cork Festival with others. I would need to have all contributions by the end of November 2003. Does anybody have the Choral Festival programme of 1955?’

Ruth Fleischmann can be contacted at
English Department, University of Bielefeld, 33501 Bielefeld, Germany.
Email: ruth.fleischmann@uni-bielefeld.de