The Mynyddislwyn male choir
"THE SOUND OF WALES"

News

Here you will find the latest information relating to the Choir along with other useful information as it becomes available. Please check back regularly for updates.

Top Stories

Practice Rooms   

Our Practice Rooms have now had new troughing fitted, curing the problem of water ingress through the external walls  making the interior damp, together with the outside walls being fully re-decorated. Work will begin soon to improve water drainage along the north wall by digging a trench to keep the water from the building. The inside of the wall will be sealed and water proofed. The heaters will then be installed in the building to fully dry the interior.

Bottom Bass John Wynne

John has been a member of Her Majesty's Inland Revenue Service for many years and being a natural Welsh speaker has always promoted the use of the Welsh language within the Service. For his constant efforts he has been awarded the MBE  and on June 28th. he and his family travelled to Buckingham Palace to the investiture of this award.

Naturally his family are very proud of him and so is the choir so a hearty congratulations to John. He also serves the choir well by being our Welsh teacher backed up by his daughter Carys who is our Musical Director.

 

Earlier News:-

The choir performed at a most unusual venue on St. David's Day  when they travelled to Colerne in Wiltshire to sing for the 21st. Signals (Air Support) at their base. A good time was had by all after a very successful concert.

We were presented with a framed picture by the Warrant Officers and Sergeants Mess their role  with the RAF and the regiment's badge which is now on display in our Practice Rooms. The base is on the site of a former RAF camp, RAF Colerne on which I served from 1991 to 1992.

 

 

By Mr. John Cribb.

The choir has been invited by the new Musical Director of the London Welsh Male Choir, Edward-Rhys Harry, to participate in the Festival Of 1000 Voices in October 2012 at the Albert hall .The choir and Conductor have agreed to accept this invitation, so learning the new music will begin as soon as the information is received by the choir.

The Oakdale/Penmaen Partnership staged an "Oakdale at St. Fagan's Heritage Weekend" on weekend September 26th. to 29th  at St. Fagan's, celebrating their connection to the museum. Our choir performed there on the Saturday 27th. giving 3 spots firstly at 12.00 noon in the old Oakdale Miners' Institute, 2.00pm in the Cockpit and finally at 4.00 pm in the entrance hall. Each performance was well received by the museum visitors The author of the Oakdale village website, Glyn Hale, was present and took the photo below of the choir singing in the Cockpit. He also recorded the choir singing and posted them on you tube with the following addresses:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRY9w8ZFRSQ&feature=related (Men Of Harlech)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1qYuWPWqAI&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXR5DRmussI (She)

 

On Saturday September 10th the choir sang at the "Anglo Welsh Festival of Male Choirs" in St. David's Hall Cardiff as part of a massed choir consisting of  Cardiff Arms Park, Biddulph Male Voice Choir, Budleigh Salterton, Canoldir Male Choir, Cotswold Male Choir, Dowlais Male Choir, Mynyddislwyn Male Choir, Newton and District Male Voice Choir, Pontyprydd Male Choir, Shrewsbury Male Voice Choir, Tenby Male Choir and Ynysowen Male Choir making a total of twelve giving about 500 voices on stage. The concert was conducted by David Last, accompanied by Joe Scullin. Also present were the llanishen Fach Primary School Choir, the famous Cory Band, Baritone Gary Griffiths with the evening being compared by Dean Powell.

Our Annual Concert was held in Blackwood Miner’s in September to a pretty full house. Our artistes for the evening were soprano Jill Padfield and Daniel Thomas, Euphonium, Caerphilly Young Musician of the Year who performed well under difficult conditions as he was slowly being cooked by the arc lights.

It was a welcome back to Jill who has sang with us many times over the years with one event in particular springing to mind, when she accompanied the choir to Normandy in 2002 on tour and saved the day by acting as our Master of Ceremonies (in French) when the appointed French gentleman failed to turn up. Our new Assistant Accompanist, young Carys Roberts made her début on stage when she accompanied Richard, our regular tickler of the ivories in “Battle Hymn of the Republic”. Due to this being her début and the fact that she is 21 this year, she was presented with a metronome by the choir. This is her final year in University training to be a teacher so we wish her good fortune come exam time.

On Friday September 16^th the choir set off from our Practice Rooms to journey to Poole for the ferry to Guernsey for a long weekend,  After a calm channel crossing to St Peter Port and onto their hotel, the choir was whisked off to Castle Cornet for a reception hosted by dignitaries from the island. Saturday was a day at leisure with the majority taking in the town of St Peter Port. The choir and guests then travelled to St James’ church for a concert to raise finds for the Alzheimer’s Society. Aided by the superb acoustics, the choir sang a mix of traditional Welsh hymns as well as a number of pieces learnt for the St David’s Hall concert, supported by a local baritone. This was also the debut performance for the newly formed choir quartet who performed “Are Hyd Y Nos” & “Bugeilio’r Gwenith Gwyn”.

After free time Sunday morning the choir entertained local people in concert at the hotel, with solos by choir soloists, followed by the quartet. A rendition of “Sarnia Cherie” was much appreciated by the audience. The concert was completed with a presentation to Jean Rault who was made a Patron of the choir.  Jean arranged the concerts in Guernsey and has been a close supporter of the choir for a number of years.

The whole tour party then enjoyed a 5 course evening meal with possibly the biggest seafood buffet ever seen! To finish off an enjoyable day the choir and guests visited the local British Legion Club for refreshments and singing. Some members of the choir and guests enjoyed an impromptu concert in the hotel bar until the early hours. The choir party left St. Peter Port on Monday morning assisted by 15 foot waves most of the way to Weymouth. Seems to me it was a very successful tour indeed.

The choir performing in concert in St. James's Church Guernsey

John Cribb

Choir Webmaster.