This year's Cork International Choral Festival takes place from 30 April-4 May.

The Seminar on Contemporary Music, established by Aloys Fleischmann in 1962 and a central part of the Cork International Choral Festival until 2004, is to be revived this year to mark the week-long event's 40th anniversary.

The day-long seminar will take place in the Stack Theatre at the CIT Cork School of Music on Saturday 3 May from 10.30am. In two separate sessions it will discuss the world premiere performances by the National Chamber Choir the previous evening of new works by Rhona Clarke and Tarik O'Regan in discussions led by Séamus de Barra and Patrick Zuk. (The performances will take place in the city's St Fin Barre's Cathedral.)

The festival will feature appearances by choirs from Canada, Germany and, in the opening gala concert on Wednesday 30 April in Cork City Hall, the a capella jazz ensemble Touché from Denmark.

On Saturday 3 May, visiting choirs will compete in the Fleischmann International Trophy Competition in Cork City Hall from 3pm. As in previous years the Contemporary Music Centre are to award the Perpetual Trophy for the performance of Irish contemporary choral Music. This award is for the performance of an original choral work by an Irish composer written after 1975 and chosen from the library collection of the Contemporary Music Centre.

For details, please see our calendar or visit www.corkchoral.ie.

Posted: 8 April 2008