Accora Orchestra take prizes at world competition

The U21 group won first place while the adults won second and the U16 came in fourth

The three Accora Orchestra groups who travelled to the World Accordion Festival in Austria this weekend have done themselves, Cavan and Ireland proud.

While the U21 orchestra took home first place in their category, the adult group took home second place and the U16s came fourth in their age group.

The Mullagh-based orchestra received the music for this year’s competition around this time last year and rehearsals for the Worlds began in earnest in St. Killian’s NS last September.

They competed against some of the world’s best accordion orchestras including all those countries with a strong accordion-playing tradition like Germany, Poland, Switzerland and Lithuania.

The Celt caught up with Yvonne Chilton of Accora as the group are making their way home from Innsbruk. Yvonne said: “We’ve had a successful competition, and everyone is delighted with our results and blown away by the whole experience.”