Cashel Choir continue their winning ways at AIMS Choral Festival

A local Cashel choir, the ‘Sunday Morning Singers’ are flying high following their participation and win at the 2023 AIMS Choral Festival in New Ross.  The 'Sunday Morning Singers' choir was founded in 2017 by past students and family members of Cashel Community School, in order to come together to continue the strong choir tradition and great vocal experiences enjoyed as part of the student community.

Under the talented guidance of Choral Director Helen Colbert, the choir has flourished. Successes and awards started in 2018 when the choir received first prize in the Lyric FM Christmas Carol Competition (Community Choir Section), and this winning streak continued in 2018 with their first wins at the AIMS Choral Festival in New Ross when they were awarded first prize in both the Female and the Light Touch Competitions.

Unfortunately, life in the form of Covid, got in the way of further success but last year, the shoulder was put to the wheel again. Tremendous success at the AIMS Choral Festival in 2022 was enjoyed, coming home with a plethora of trophies; including The McCullough Pigott Trophy for Sacred Music, the Whitten Haslam Trophy and indeed the choir won Best Overall Choir of the Festival.

Building on the experience gained over the last year, the choir decided to enter the Cork International Choral Festival this April and realised a 25-year dream of their choral director, Helen Colbert, winning the Upper Voices Choir Competition. Less than a month later, on Sunday the 21 st of May, it was time to head to New Ross again.

Like the Tipperary team heading to Semple Stadium on Sunday in parallel time, the preparation and practice was done but each performance is different. The sun was shining and the temperatures in the sunny South East were balmy when the choir arrived in New Ross. The choir performed to their best were accompanied beautifully by Marie Tobin on piano. Their fate was in the lap of the Gods.

The AIMS Choral Festival is in its 38th year and has a tradition of hosting a quality weekend for both choral lovers and performers, with a high standard set by a panel of adjudicators. At the conclusion of the performances, all choirs gathered in the auditorium for the results and despite the wait, the atmosphere was electric with fantastic camaraderie and acapella renditions of classic songs from Les Mis and The Greatest Showman.

The efforts of the Sunday Morning Singers were duly rewarded when they were awarded first place in the Light Touch competition winning The Tom McNally Memorial Perpetual Cup.   The adjudicators said that the Sunday Morning Singers basically proved a lesson to all of us on how to sing; how to enunciate and how to really capture an audience. High praise
indeed and spirits were very high, as all headed back to Cashel triumphant.