This year's Cork International Choral Festival features a chamber opera by composer John Gibson.

The 52nd Cork International Choral Festival hosts John Gibson's Judith & Holofernes as part of the Cork 2005 programme. Concerts will take place in the City Hall, St Fin Barre's Cathedral, and a special "after dark" concert presenting the internationally acclaimed choir Anúna (Ireland), will be featured in the North Cathedral.

Each year international choirs are selected to compete for the Fleischmann International Trophy. The selected choirs also have an opportunity to perform non-competitively in a range of Festival activities presented over the weekend. As well as foreign choirs, the Festival annually features adult, youth and school choirs who participate in national competitions.

The Contemporary Music Centre’s Perpetual Trophy will be awarded as part of these competitions, for the best performance of an original choral work by an Irish composer written after 1975.

The 2006 Cork International Choral Festival also features "Ethnic Voices", which will feature performers from Bulgaria, Ireland, Sardinia, Switzerland and Tuva bringing the colour and music of ethnic diversity to Cork audiences, and "Contemporary Europe -- A Choral Journey in Words and Music", which will present a programme of contemporary European choral music performed by the National Chamber Choir.

The Cork International Choral Festival runs from Thursday 27 April to Monday 1 May. Further information on all festival events is available at the festival's web site.

Posted: 14 March 2006