WE USUALLY get to one at least of the Cornwall International Male Voice Choir Festival 2009 events, which are held biennially, when they come to the Stratton area, usually at Bude Central Methodists.

This year's festival spanned six days and had 54 different choirs, half from Cornwall alone. This time we decided to go to Padstow for a change as a friend of ours was the accompanist with the Nelson Arion Male Voice Choir from Lancashire and they were to be at Padstow Church on Sunday, May 3.

These concerts are the splendid culmination of two years' hard work by the organisers and are worth every bit of that effort.

The evening started with the Imerys Mid Cornwall MVC, which is an amalgamation of the old English China Clays Choir and the St Austell MVC, then came on the Isgol Gerdd Ceredigion Boys Choir and after the short interval the Nelson Arion, who had come second in the over 41 members competition the previous day.

The last choir of the evening was the 'youngest' Cornish choir, the Tamar Valley MVC; not youngest in the members' ages, but from the fact that they were only formed in 2006!

The singing was of the highest quality as you'd expect but the boys from Ceredigion really stole the show; for not only did they fill the large church with sound and harmony but they really had smiles on their faces and put great efforts into their acting as well. At the end of their six pieces they got a thoroughly deserved standing ovation and then performed an encore.

By the way, there were only 14 of them and seem to range in age from about 14 to 18 years! Such talent and enthusiasm bodes well for the future, and I suspect that not a little of this is due to their musical director, whose name we didn't get.

Most of the items, like their first, a sea shanty, they sang in Welsh, including a famous chorus from The Pirates of Penzance! Not for nothing are they the top boys choir in Wales, so note the name 'Isgol Gerdd Ceredigion' and get to see them live if you possibly can.

Unfortunately they had to rush off at the interval because their coach driver was running out of hours; but what a packed weekend for them: driven down after school on Friday, competitions on Saturday and a concert on Sunday, then home that night. It makes you weak to think about it!

All the boys' performance did nothing to take away from the other three choirs, each with their own differing styles and programme, and so much packed into the evening it's hard to pick anything out, it was all so good. However, the three male voice choirs combined at the end, over 100 voices, to give us a memorable rendering of 'Morte Christi', quite a finale to go home with.

Stratton.