Moate Children’s Choir have won the ESB Feis Ceoil  Junior Choir 2017 at the RDS in Dublin

Moate Children’s Choir has won the Junior Choirs Competition at the ESB Feis Ceoil at the RDS in Dublin.

The 50 strong Choir from Moate, are walking on air after scooping 1^st prize in the Junior Choir’s category of the competition which took place last Tuesday March 28. They also took 2^nd place in the Sacred Music cup.

The judges applauded the choir in all aspects of their singing and singled them out for being "a well disciplined group, with excellent vocal production, technical knowledge and a captivating performance".

As winners of their category the choir were invited to perform at the Winners Concert at 7pm in the RDS Concert Hall where they wowed the audience of a packed auditorium.

Moate Children’s Choir was founded in 2007 by its director, Ciaran Brady.

It is a training ground for young primary school singers in the Midland regions with the average age of the choir being 10 years old.

The choir works with sheet music, and so the children learn to sight read, and receive vocal training through an enjoyable environment whilst being immersed in fine choral music.

They perform at many concerts nationally. They won first place at Limerick Choral Festival in 2012 and were junior unison choirs winner in 2015 at the ESB RDS Feis Ceoil, and have also won many awards at other National Choral Competitions. They are currently working toward their end of year concert in Tuar Ard in June.

Ciaran Brady has an Honours Master’s degree in Music and vocal performance from NUI Maynooth. He is Director of the Academy of Music in Tullamore and is Vocal Coach and Performance Tutor with the music department at NUI Maynooth