Cornwall International Male Choral Festival 2026
May 2026 saw us performing at the 12th Cornwall International Male Choral Festival (CIMCF). Basing ourselves in St Austell, we'd prepared a short set for the evening concerts, a longer, and more flexible set, for the lunchtime concerts, and a few other songs in case the occasion required it. Which it did, on the train on the way to Cornwall, as an encore in Saltash and, memorably, at the Afterglow in the delightful White Hart Hotel in St Austell where we, the Oxford Welsh Male Voice Choir and the Mevagissey Male Choir had a thoroughly enjoyable evening following our final concert.
In Saltash we were joined for the encore by one of our former members, Tony, who moved to Cornwall more than five years ago and is now a member of the Rame Peninsula Male Voice Choir. He'd even remembered his bow tie!
In between concerts some of us visited the fascinating St Austell Brewery, and yes, we sampled one of their lovely (low alcohol) beers. There are benefits of a Master Brewer being one of our tenors.
We should thank the other choirs with which we sang, who were all, to a man, delightful, welcoming and gifted singers. That includes Jitro, the amazing Czech children's choir - actually all girls, some as young as twelve years old - who sang with voices of angels. Although how they managed to enter a male choral festival never quite became clear!
The whole weekend was just brilliant fun, full of much hilarity, Cornish pasties and joyful singing. Many thanks to Jane, our MD, for organising the whole thing and keeping us all to schedule; it must have been like herding cats at some moments. And also to our delightful and talented accompanist Kerry-Anna, without whom we wouldn't be the choir we are today.
In Saltash we were joined for the encore by one of our former members, Tony, who moved to Cornwall more than five years ago and is now a member of the Rame Peninsula Male Voice Choir. He'd even remembered his bow tie!
In between concerts some of us visited the fascinating St Austell Brewery, and yes, we sampled one of their lovely (low alcohol) beers. There are benefits of a Master Brewer being one of our tenors.
We should thank the other choirs with which we sang, who were all, to a man, delightful, welcoming and gifted singers. That includes Jitro, the amazing Czech children's choir - actually all girls, some as young as twelve years old - who sang with voices of angels. Although how they managed to enter a male choral festival never quite became clear!
The whole weekend was just brilliant fun, full of much hilarity, Cornish pasties and joyful singing. Many thanks to Jane, our MD, for organising the whole thing and keeping us all to schedule; it must have been like herding cats at some moments. And also to our delightful and talented accompanist Kerry-Anna, without whom we wouldn't be the choir we are today.
Chapel Street Methodist Church, Penzance
Members of the choir, in fetching headgear, along with our guide Baz (in orange), at the St Austell Brewery
Singing at Healey's Cornish Cyder Farm
Mevagissey Harbour
In St John's Church, St Austell, about to perform Take Me Home, Country Roads
