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Cor Bach – Midlands Choir of the Year winners – a retrospective!

Cor Bach – Midlands Choir of the Year Winners 2022

A retrospective!

In 2022, Cor Bach, a small a capella group mainly heralding from North Staffordshire, took the decision to enter the inaugural ‘Midlands Choir of the Year’ competition to take place in Lichfield.  Little did we know the journey that it would take us on!

We formed in 2018, as a group wishing to ‘do something different’, somewhat away from the traditional male voice choir singing within which most of us were schooled.  Fancy a bit of ‘Queen’ … sure!  ‘ELO’ … certainly. What about Lauridson’s ‘Magnum Mysterium’ … well why not!  The promise of such an eclectic range of music was certainly part of the appeal for each of us, plus the possibility of friends rehearsing each week over a glass or two, naturally!

MCOTY audition file recorded and despatched to the wonderfully supportive festival director, Damian Thantrey, led to an invitation to a semi-final in Lichfield before adjudicators.  From the beginning this felt like a thorough, meaningful and credible process.  Getting the nod to take part on the final in the July of 2022 was such a joy.  Wow, the opportunity to sing in Lichfield Cathedral alongside so many fantastic choirs. What an honour.

To walk away with both the Adjudicators’ votes as well as the audience’s was beyond our wildest expectations, to be honest, and to state that the impact that this had upon Cor Bach’s singing fortunes has been profound is an understatement! The prize money from MCOTY was, of course lovely, but the doors that opened to us following our success have been extraordinary – just a little group of singing friends singing to amuse ourselves and whoever is prepared to listen whether in pubs, churches, or performance halls.

Here are just a few of the Cor Bach highlights over the last 18 months that we probably wouldn’t have achieved with 2022 MCOTY.

  •  Opening for world-renowned tenor Russell ‘The Voice’ Watson on three occasions
  •  Performing our own (sold out!) concert within the full, annual Lichfield Festival in 2023
  •  Being invited to sing in several prestigious concert venues within the Midlands
  •  Building up a tremendous following on ‘Facebook’,  ‘X’ (Twitter), and for our ‘YouTube’ channel
  •  Being invited by the amazing, award-winning professional theatre company Claybody Theatre (www.claybodytheatre.com) to be at the centre of a new play entitled ‘Song of the Sytch’ including both singing and, frighteningly, a little acting.  The 10 nights of the show totally sold out, raising our profile significantly and   leading to a further sold out Cor Bach concert to raise funds for Claybody’s fantastic education work.
  •  Countless local radio interviews and singing performances which also led to us writing and performing a new ‘jingle’ for one of the presenters

There is so much more in the pipeline for us, and we are so remarkably grateful to the wonder that is ‘Midlands Choir of the Year’!

We hope that our journey might just tempt some of the amazing choirs within the Midlands to consider an entry to the 2024 MCOTY.  We’ll be there at the final in Lichfield Cathedral, not as competitors, but to support all of the participants, to perform a few numbers whilst the adjudicators deliberate and reach their conclusions and, of course, to hand over the trophy to the next worthy winners!