Award-winners on song again

The city’s award-winning choirs made a clean sweep at one of the country’s largest performing arts festivals, bringing home an impressive collection of silverware!

Peterborough Male Voice Choir and Peterborough Voices took part in the prestigious Cheltenham Festival of Performing Arts on May 13, taking the top spot in both male voice and female voice classes, and winning the coveted Gold Cup awarded for the ‘most memorable performance’ of the day.

The choirs braved a 5am alarm call to travel to Cheltenham which certainly didn’t put them off their game! Deemed “vocal magic” by the adjudicators, Peterborough Male Voice Choir’s stunning performance won them the PJ Taylor Challenge Cup, while Peterborough Voices were awarded the Cotswold Singers Trophy as well as the Gold Cup for their “astounding” singing.

The Peterborough choirs went head to head in the sacred music class, but the adjudicators couldn’t choose between them, awarding them joint first place and the Lily Ames Memorial Challenge Cup.

The choirs’ chair of Trustees, Mark Currier, said: “We’re delighted with what we’ve achieved today, performing some really challenging and innovative new repertoire to a very high standard and receiving consistently high marks from the adjudicators. Competing over such a long day demanded a sustained effort and everyone gave one hundred percent, showing real commitment and teamwork.”

William Prideaux, the choirs’ director, added: “We’ve had a great day here in Cheltenham.

“Some new silverware for the trophy cabinet, some fantastic comments from the adjudicators, and the opportunity to listen to some really inspiring singing from the other choirs too!

“Saturdays don’t come much better.”