It was three great days of singing, singing and yet more singing – just what RMVC does best! News

Once more this year we joined with 50 other choirs in the Cornwall International Male Choral festival to take part in a celebration of musical competitions and concerts.  Billeted in an excellent hotel overlooking the beautiful beach and cliff area in Newquay, on Friday night after a good, convivial supper Choir members nursed their nerves, expectations and hopes before the following morning taking the short trip south to Truro to get set to compete.

THE COMPETITION

Arriving at Truro Cathedral, the competition venue, RMVC was placed in a category of 40 or fewer choir members competing against 12 other international and UK choirs. Each choir had 12 minutes and no more to sing their chosen pieces. For RMVC these were The Seal Lullaby, The Morning Trumpet, and O Gymru all lovely, but technically challenging. Later we were told the choir performed them well, and later still the competition adjudicators praised RMVC and other choirs for this year’s extremely high standard of performances. HOWEVER, in case you are wondering, no we didn’t win, though we were satisfactorily placed. Against us in the competition were two excellent international choral choirs, ffortissibros and Vocal Ensemble Man(n) Singt whose fantastic, trained voices worked their magic on the adjudicators giving them well-deserved first and second places in our category. So maybe with more professional talent taking the lead we didn’t need to be disappointed! 

THE NEXT DAY CONCERTS

In the rain

On Saturday the weather was glorious: on Sunday it rained, and it was on Sunday morning that we were due to sing in the open air above the beach at Killacourt in Newquay….umm  Before us on stage was Hampshire Police MVC and we were set to join them for a joint rendering of an old favourite American Trilogy. The umms and ahhs over breakfast, would the concert be called off or not continued until the last minute before we were due take a damp walk to Killacourt. We went; we sang with the Police choir; we then sang three pieces on our own and we all got very wet, as did our stalwart audience and the one vocal dog!

That evening

We dried off over a splendid roast lunch at the hotel, then rested until the time to depart for our final concert in the Methodist Church in Porthleven. Here there was a line-up of five choirs including the aforementioned Vocal Ensemble Man(n) Singt performing alongside the more traditional MVCs all of whom were very well recieved. BUT forgive us for blowing our own trumpet.  Amongst the pieces RMVC sang, and sang especially well, was one called Prayer of the Children. This exquisitely, emotional piece written in the words of children suffering through war was so extremely poignant in today’s world that amongst our choir members and the audience many wept. Our performance of the other songs, including another audience favourite, Bui Doi, saw us finish our set with a standing ovation from the audience and very welcome praise for our singing from the competition runners up, the Vocal Ensemble Man(n) Singt.

WHAT ELSE?

Without going into detail, those who know us, know that down-time is singing time. In the hotel we sang after dinner on Saturday. At Porthleven we shared a most amazing Afterglow with the other choirs at the Porthleven Association Football Club premises where the host choir Kerrier Male Choir laid on a substantial, buffet for the singers and their partners and friends. The singing was raucous, raising the roof and it was just the best experience to complete a great May Day Bank holiday. Thanks Kerrier.

And that’s it for Cornwall 2022.