After the wonderful trip to Montigny, France last April, the choir is delighted to announce that Montigny Chorale Quatre Vents (C4V) have graciously accepted our invitation to come to Wicklow.

C4V, a mixed male and female choir, will be arriving on Friday 31st May and we have a very busy and fun weekend planned for the choir to enjoy. The highlight and centre piece will be a joint concert in Fatima Hall in Domican Convent, Wicklow under the auspices of the Wicklow Lions club on the evening of Saturday 1st June. Moneys raised will go to Wicklow Cancer Support. WMVC and C4V are delighted to be able to help this worthwhile cause and we would invite you to lend your support in attending what promises to be an excellent concert.

Other events for the weekend will include a Welcome Dinner hosted by WMVC, a trip to Glendalough and Kilmacurragh Botanic Gardens, an historic tour of Wicklow Town and Jail and an “Irish Night” of music, song and dance on the Sunday evening. You can be sure the craic will be mighty!!.

We expect another joint (free) public performance …….. keep an eye on this page.

The choir is on the road again over the next few months with a series of competitions and concerts.

First up, the choir is performing in concert in Glenealy Hall on Saturday 13th April to help commemorate the 150th anniversary of the opening of the Catholic Church in Glenealy. The choir is delighted to be invited to participate in this event. The choir is among a number of performing groups and it promises to be a very special occasion. We hope to be on stage for two performances of 20 minutes each.

This is followed by a weekend trip to compete in Cork International Choral Festival on the weekend of 3-5th May. This is regarded as the premier musical festival in Ireland with very tough competition and we travel with confidence that we can perform to the highest standards and do justice to all the hard work done by the musical director, committee and choir members in preparing for this event.

Sunday 19th May we are heading off to County Wexford to compete in the New Ross Choral Festival where we have been frequent winners of the Male Voice Choir competition.

And there’s more ……..

We are delighted to share that WMVC competed recently in the Arklow Choral festival. The choir competed in two event – the Male TTB Naughter Cup and Male TTBB Paddy Fitzgerald Memorial Trophy. The choir sang “Locus Iste” and “Softly as I leave You” in the TTB competition, and “Oft In The Stilly Night” and “Soldiers Chorus” in the TTBB competition. It was the choir’s first public performance of “Locus Iste” and unfortunately we didn’t perform it to our usual high standards and deservedly were pipped by Ballinteer MVC to first prize in the Naughter Cup.

Despite the setback, the choir rose to the challenge in the next competition. The roles were reversed with Wicklow MVC coming in first and Ballinteer MVC coming in a close second.

Subsequently, we were pleasantly surpised to learn that we had won the overall Male competition, The Jimmy Fitzmaurice Award, as we had won the TTBB competition – which is regarded as the more prestigious event.

Well done to all who practiced so hard and performed in the events and special thanks to our Musical Director, Anthony Norton and accompanist, Yvonne Collier.

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The Choir’s best wishes go out to three members who have suffered serious injures in the past few months.  Larry Carey broke a bone in his leg in a freak accident about three months ago while serving on the Rescue Boat for Wicklow Swimming Club.  Noel Geraghty sustained very serious injuries to his shoulder, leg, foot and eye in an accident during a holiday to France in the Summer just gone.  Simon Forde also had an accident in the early part of the Summer and broke a bone in his foot.  Simon has fully recovered and Larry and Noel are now well on their way to recovery.  It was brilliant to see all three at our rehearsal on Tuesday last, the 2nd of October 2018. 

Our main fundraising event of the year is the annual golf classic. This year 29 teams played on a beautiful day on 21st July 2018 and, as always, it was a most enjoyable event.  All choir members either entered a team or sponsored on the day and the Committee is very pleased with the great interest and effort made by everyone. A special word of thanks goes to Larry Carey who once again did so much work.

Wicklow Male Voice Choir recently travelled to twin town Montigny, in France to represent the choir, Wicklow Town and County Wicklow during the Montigny spring Festival. This follows in a long WMVC representative tradition as the choir has already represented Wicklow Town in Eichenzell in Germany and Portmadog in Wales, and has also represented Arklow during twinning celebrations in Chateaux Dunn in France. The choir strives to be the best ambassadors possible for county Wicklow.

This tour was no exception and the choir performed to enthusiastic audiences in no less that four separate performances! The choir was delighted to participate in an informal welcome evening with the Montigny Twinning committee and the local French Chorale IV Vents mixed choir. Both choirs performed in a fun and light atmosphere and after enjoying the excellent Montigny hospitality both choirs joined for a fun “sing off” that everybody enjoyed. Noel Geraghty, Pat Sherlock, Joe McGettigan and MD Tony Norton led the way for Wicklow.

WMVC were honoured guests at the opening of the Montigny “Prairiale” spring fair where the official ceremonies were concluded with performances of the WMVC and The Chorale IV Vents.

The main event of the tour was the Saturday evening concert in aid of the local Guide Dogs For The Blind association. Again, the choir performed with The Chorale IV Vents in concert to over 500 delighted audience members. Both choirs performed separately but also performed together for rousing renditions of the Congolese “Banaha” and Russian “Kalinka”. After official presentations, the concert was closed off with the national anthems. The events of the evening continued however with a large number of the Montigny Twinning committee and The Chorale IV Vents joining the members of the WMVC for an unofficial concert in a local pub. A great time was had by all with promises to visit and return made throughout the evening.

WMVC was invited to help celebrate Mass in the beautiful Church of St Martin on Sunday morning and despite some lack of sleep, the members again represented Wicklow superbly with excellent performances of very contrasting pieces in “The Lord Bless You And Keep You”, “Jesu Joy Of Man’s Desiring”, “Ag Críost An Síol” and “Goin Up A Yonder”.

The tour finished off with WMVC being guests of Montigny Twinning committee on a tour of Paris taking in the sights of the Eiffel Tour, Arc De Triomphe, The Champs Elysee and much more. The highlight was a “bateau Mouche”, flying boat tour of Paris from the Seine finishing off with a trip to Notre Dame. A fabulous finish to a fabulous weekend.

Wicklow Male Voice Choir is on the move again!!

Well, we will be in April 2018!!

The choir is planning a visit to our “twin” – Montigny, France – for the Priariale festival where the choir will represent Wicklow in at least three (official) singing events – one of which will be a major fund raiser for the local Lions Club plus a number of unofficial events. There will also be a joint Irish/Franco event where the choir will share the stage with local highly acclaimed Chorale Quatre Vents.

In addition to official duties, the choir hope to make plenty of friends, do some “fringe” singing and all this while taking in a visit to the Palace of Versaille and seeing Paris from the Seine!!

It promises to be a busy weekend!!!

It is great being a member of Wicklow Male Voice Choir and if you would like to be involved just contact any member or a member of the committee for details.

Wicklow Male Voice Choir is pleased to announce that our next concert in Wicklow will be held in the Grand Hotel at 8:00pm on Sunday 10/12/2017.

This promises to be a special event, presented as it will be for the first time by our new Musical Director Tony Norton (http://anthonynortontenor.com/about/) accompanied on piano by David Wray http://www.theirishcollegeofmusictheatre.com/davidwray.php with guest soprano Sandra Oman http://www.sandraoman.com/biography-1/

The members of Wicklow MVC are delighted to bring this line up of internationally recognised and lauded talent to Wicklow to help “kick start” the Christmas Season!

Tickets @ €15 can be purchased from The Grand Hotel or Earls News Agents, Wicklow and from any member of the choir.

This concert will be different!

Wicklow Male Voice Choir is on the move again!! After our most recent win in Castlebar, the choir is participating in the Sligo International Choral Festival on the weekend of 17/11/2017 to 19/11/2017.

This is a new departure for the choir because, for the first time ever, the choir will participate in two competitions – mixed voice and male voice. These will be tough competitions and we know in advance that we will be up against 16 other choirs so to the competition will be stiff. However, the choir has worked hard over recent months and we head to Sligo with enthusiasm and confidence.

Whatever the outcome, the trip will be massive fun as usual and we expect to participate fully in the “fringe” events!

On Sunday 19/11/2017, the choir will participate in 1:00pm mass in St Mel’s Cathedral Longford.