NUI GALWAY'S Testostertones won the National Male Choir Competition at the Cork International Choral Festival - the first college based choir, and the first Galway choir, to take this title.
The ensemble performed music from the Renaissance and pieces by Arnold Schönberg, in the process beating Portadown Male Voice Choir, who were going for their fifth title in a row, and scoring the second highest mark overall among the Irish choirs at the festival.
Speaking after the festival, Peter Mannion, who formed the choir in 2003, said: “The lads achieved an amazing result in Cork. We worked very hard and had some great assistance from Dr Aidan Thomson who recently started as NUI Galway’s first head of music. We are in our 15th year so we hope to do some special things for this upcoming year to mark the occasion including going into the recording studio to record some a cappella arrangements.”
The Testostertones will be targeting the Choir of the Year competition at the Cork Choral Festival in 2019 where they will become the first male voice choir to compete in the competition.
