Grosvenor Chorale travelled to London's Royal Festival Hall on London's South Bank on Sunday 7th December to compete in the Grand Final of BBC Radio 3 Choir of the Year Competition - the UK's largest amateur choral competition.

In the culmination of a competition that attracted more than 5000 singers, the final seven choirs were drawn from across the UK and represented a range of choral styles, from children's choirs to barbershop singing, with music ranging from the 17th century to the composers of here and now.

After competing in front of almost 3000 people, the choir from Belfast received some glowing critiques from the suitably qualified judging panel:

Masterful ... the music seems to fly off the page with you... The spirit of music making in Northern Ireland is very much prominent in your music making here today ... i think it's absolutely superb ...

Paul Gladstone Reid, composer, pianist, singer songwriter

...I don't know how, but you manage to capture the warmth of the place where you come from - anyone who's been to Northern Ireland will know that the people are incredibly friendly there, and you somehow manage to capture that in your piece ... a beautiful performance...

Howard Goodhall, composer, broadcaster, government music tsar

And praise for musical director, Edward Craig:

... you are an exceptionally gifted and accomplished choral conductor ... you manage to get deep inside the music and the technical requirements to do that effectively are enormous ... You were able to paint and caress the text of that Whitacre ... i could actually start seeing colours; it was so well controlled and so beautifully touching ...

Suzi Digby, conductor, musician, judge on BBC 1 series Last Choir Standing


However, as in any competition there can be only one winner - in this case, the judges saw fit to award the winning accolade to youth choir, Scunthorpe Co-operative Junior Choir.

Grosvenor however, can be rightly proud of reminding the rest of the UK that the choral music making tradition is alive and well in Northern Ireland, as they continue the legacy of strong representations by local choirs in this national competition over the past 24 years.

The evening was recorded for BBC Radio 3 and broadcast on Monday 8th December and the televised highlights will be shown on BBC Four Television on Friday 12th December at 7.30pm.