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Aoife O’Connor, soprano, talks about her experience as a newly joined member on her first trip abroad with the choir.
“It has now been two weeks since New Dublin Voices returned from the Béla Bártok International Choir Competition, Debrecen: tired, proud and well… hungry (first and last pun, promise). As a new member of the group, it was my first experience going abroad and competing with the choir. A competition away from home is a wonderful way to get to know people so I’m thrilled that I was on the trip. We practised in a couple of different venues in the preceding weeks to acquaint ourselves with singing in a dry acoustic – we had previously been spoilt with big churches and the Hugh Lane Gallery which acoustically speaking can give you the same sort of false confidence as singing in the shower. Singing rehearsals were sprinkled with some light choreography courtesy of Mike (tenor), where we applied the same accuracy that is usually discussed surrounding vocal technique to the angle and speed of a hair flip. Believe me, getting that many Irish people to dance in any form with confidence in front of hundreds of people is a mammoth task, so well done to us and well done to Mike for making it happen.
Our flight over was on Wednesday evening, and once we arrived in Hungary, we decided to dive head first into Hungarian cuisine with a half hour trip to the airport Spar. Here, we sampled exotic goods such as greener than usual bananas and Lays crisps as opposed to Tayto.
Our first full day in Debrecen (Thursday) began with a very early soundcheck. A general rehearsed was then followed by a much needed nap. Trailing after Gabriella Zámbó – our guide for the duration of the trip – we arrived at the train station where our pop-up performance was intermingled with the odd sounding of the stations announcement jingle. Later in the day, we took part in a procession, singing our way into the Reformed Church for the opening ceremony of the festival. Our entrance was accompanied by the delightful odour of factor 50 Ambre Solaire and a rendition of The Star of the County Down (arr. Howard Goodall).
Our first performance (category semi-final) was on the Friday and I was feeling a mixture of anticipation and nerves. We sang four pieces by Vass, Høybye, Kodály and Antognini. We had worked a lot on pronunciation; combined with the music of later performances, we switched between French, English (still can’t quite pronounce it), Italianate Latin, Germanic Latin, Italian, and Hungarian! 
The standard of the other choirs was very high, so we were delighted to get through to the final of the mixed choir. Gabriella quickly became one of our favourite people, as she donned the Irish flag in the audience of our next performance.
Our category final was the next day (Saturday). We sang Gyöngyösi, Petrassi (cue dance moves!), Doherty (cue applause!) and Vila. As we hair-flipped I just knew things were going well. Each arm ascended with perfect precision, wrists flicked, and our long Irish locks (or lack thereof in the tenor section) settled with an air of satisfaction. 
The best part, however, was finishing the atmospheric work Under-Song, a piece by young Irish composer (and New Dublin Voices baritone) Seán Doherty. As the last of the bird song and sound effects died out, Bernie’s hands slowly brought the dynamic down to a whisper. I had a very good feeling that we had done our best and it was in the hands of the choir Gods whether we would be standing on the stage, competing in the Grand Prix the following day. That night we sat outside at the makeshift stage in Múzeum Park waiting for the results. Interestingly, I was positioned beside a semi-fluent Hungarian speaker (Brian), so for every word that went over my head, his eyes were beginning to light up. We didn’t place third… Nobody placed second (?)… and the highly impressive American choir (The University of Houston Concert Chorale) hadn’t placed yet! I thought “put away your scores, hang up your sash, we didn’t place”. However, Brian’s face told a different story, and as the presenter began to translate in English, I realised we had won by 0.4%, but placing joint first with the Americans ex aequo. There were shouts of happiness (and thankfully no Ozzy ozzy oi oi’s) as the Irish choir stopped self-deprecating and began to view ourselves as a group that deserved to be here just as much as the others. There was not one pint poured that night as we kept our focus, planning to meet at 7:20am the following morning. The Grand-Prix competition would take place at 2pm.
We were all feeling the pressure that day, and as someone without perfect pitch, paranoia reared its ugly head as I began to think “was that me?” each time a critique was given. However, after an hour break and some much-needed refreshments, we had a sectional that really turned the whole thing around. Judith Lyons is a fabulous soprano section leader and in the way of a sorority or a sisterhood, the girls brought each other’s confidence up and I think all the sections finished with a greater sense of unity and confidence. Bernie gave us a pep talk and we realised that we needed to shake some of our Irish modesty, give back our slice of humble pie and walk onto the stage with the confidence of a choir that qualified for the Grand Prix. We sang Mäntyjärvi, Ligeti, Mealor and Tas. We really enjoyed the performance and as I looked around the choir, everyone was smiling. That night we walked away with the Special Prize for best conductor, the Special Prize for the best interpretation of a contemporary piece, Under-Song (Go Seán!), and the knowledge that we were one vote away from winning the Grand Prix. 
Huge congratulations has to go to the winners Houston University Concert Chorale who performed with great energy and precision. Although of course there can be feelings of disappointment when you get very close to winning, I think that we can use the experience as a motivator. I for one am ready to get out there and compete again!
It’s been an amazing experience. Bernie our conductor is fantastic, the choir are so passionate and motivated, and I look forward to the next opportunity to perform and compete with such a great bunch of people.”
Aoife O’Connor is a secondary school teacher. Having sung previously with UCD Choral Scholars and the Maynooth Chamber Choir, she has been with us as a first soprano since May. With her light-hearted demeanor and her gently sarcastic sense of humour she has been a very welcome addition to the choir.
