The Guinness Choir at the Cork International Choral Festival

The Guinness Choir will take centre stage at this year’s Cork International Choral Festival – and Spry Finance is proud to support this vibrant community of passionate and talented amateur singers during this incredible experience.

The festival has been bringing Cork to life with song since 1954. Each year it welcomes choristers from across the world to perform at gala concerts, schools concerts, and national and international competitions. It truly is one of Europe’s premier international choral festivals

The Guinness Choir will perform The Dream of Gerontius at the Opening Gala Concert at Cork City Hall on April 30, alongside the East Cork Choral Society and the Cork Fleischmann Symphony Orchestra.

One of Edward Elgar’s greatest works, it relates the journey of a pious man’s soul from his deathbed to his judgment before God and settling into Purgatory. The chorus depicts both demons and angels at different points in the narrative while the solo parts are heroic and tender in equal measure.

Guinness Choir Sponsored by Spry Finance

200 Performers

The Dream of Gerontius is set to music on a grand scale for soloists, a large chorus and orchestra – and with around 200 performers on stage at Cork City Hall, the event is sure to be a gala performance in every sense.

Rehearsals have been ongoing for some time and the excitement is building as the big day draws closer. Music director Ciarán Kelly said: “It’s a massive piece of music. There’s going to be an orchestra of 50 or 60 players, there’s two choirs, there’s a semi chorus. It’s probably the biggest collaborative performance we’ll ever have done.”

It will be particularly special for one member of the orchestra, trombonist Roddy O’Keeffe, who earlier in the day will deliver a presentation on his PhD research into the history of The Guinness Choir.

Roddy is a lecturer at Munster Technological University Cork School of Music and is also studying for his PhD at Technological University Dublin. His research focus is on the history of the Choir, and how the Choir fits into the broader musical landscape of Dublin and Ireland. There is a particular focus on the incredible contribution of the founding conductor of the choir, Victor Leeson.

Family Connection

Roddy, who has a strong family connection to the choir through his mother, explained: “We can see the legacy of Victor’s hard-working endeavours because there are choir members who were there back in his day who are still here going strong and are stalwarts to it.”

The performance and presentation will be the latest chapter in the long and storied involvement of one of Dublin’s oldest mixed-voice choirs in the Cork international Choral Festival, memorialised by the Victor Leeson trophy which is awarded to the Best Irish Choir at the event. The Guinness Choir was the first choir to win the award twice in a row, and is the only choir to win it three times.

Vibrant Community

The nascent community nurtured and grown by Victor Leeson in the early years of the choir lives on in the passionate group of amateur singers who form the choir today.

Research shows that choral singing can offer substantial physical, mental, and emotional benefits in later life, including reducing stress and anxiety, improving memory and concentration, and fostering social connections. We can’t wait for the big day in Cork.

The Cork International Choral Festival 2025 runs from April 30th to May 4th. For more information and to book tickets for the Opening Gala Concert, The Dream of Gerontius, click here »

Roddy O’Keeffe’s presentation – The Guinness Choir at the Cork International Choral Festival, 1959 to 1966 – takes place at MTU School of Music at 2pm on April 30th. Admisssion is free. For more information or to book tickets, click here »