Background – Various Voices Dublin 2014
Various Voices is a pan-European choral festival aimed at gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender choirs and choruses. Following the wonderful 2009 festival in London, Dublin is ready to take the reins!
The festival will span four days, June 13th to 16th 2014, with an opening ceremony on Friday, and a closing ceremony on Monday evening. During the festival, each visiting choir will perform to the festival. There is also schedule of workshops and social events for each day. We look forward to welcoming the 80+ choirs from across the world, comprising 2,000 to 3,000 singers.
The festival has received support from Dublin PRIDE, DCU, Dublin City Council, Failte Ireland, IMRO among others.
The Irish Songbook
The board of Various Voices Dublin 2014 are setting out to create an Irish Songbook as part of the 2014 festival. This book would contain a number of new arrangements of both traditional and contemporary Irish songs, arranged for multiple choir formations. A copy of the Songbook will be sent to every LGBT choir and chorus around the world, approx 350, in the summer of 2012 becoming a key part of the festival marketing strategy.
It is anticipated that the choirs will include some/all of the songs from the songbook in their own repertoires in the year before the festival, performing them in their own cities and in their recordings. This will give IMRO members an opportunity to participate in an international event, with their works being performed across the globe, by some of the world’s most creative and renowned choirs, such as Los Angeles and New York Gay Men’s Choruses, Turtle Creek Chorale, London Gay Men’s Chorus and more.
The Songbook will continue to have a life outside and beyond the festival, with the potential to make the songs available online to any choir around the world to perform and record. The Irish Songbook will form a core to the 2014 festival, with a Songbook Concert held in The Helix – creating a choir of 1200 voices performing the songs. We hope to seek broadcasting and recording opportunities for this concert also.
The Irish Songbook will form part of the legacy of the Dublin 2014 festival.
Opportunity
IMRO members are invited to submit an arrangement of:
An Irish song, either contemporary or traditional
Arrangement should be accessible to most levels of choir
Where possible arrangement should be submitted for SSA, SATB and TTBB, either in three separate arrangements or arranged so that it can be transposed
Arrangements can be a cappella or with accompaniment
Submissions must be received no later than Friday 16th June.
12 songs will be selected from the submissions for inclusion in the printed Irish Songbook.
If you have any questions or queries please contact:
Ian Doyle Festival Director ian@nullvariousvoices.ie www.variousvoices.ie
Tel: +353 (0)86 3545011 46 Mountjoy Square, Dublin 1, Ireland
