June – Annual Concert

Our annual concert was held again at All Saints Church, Oystermouth on 6^th June. We opened with a new piece to our repertoire O Gymru, which is a very patriotic Welsh song and the first section finished with Gordon Langford’s arrangement of The Lost Chord. This featured Steve on the organ and the piece built to an amazing climax.

Our soloists this year were Eirlys Myfanwy Davies and Jonathan Lycett. Eirlys has just performed in the Royal Albert Hall, London, with the Joint Festival of Welsh Massed Voices and regularly appears on S4C. She sang a variety of pieces including Mozart’s Un moto di joia and Jason Howard’s arrangement of Cymru Fach. Jonathan was highly entertaining, as usual, singing mainly songs from the shows and finishing with Adolphe Adam’s famous The Holy City.

We completed the programme with a number of lighter items including Robbie Williams’ Angels and a medley of songs by Abba.

 When Nick took over as musical director over 2 years ago, we had to recruit new members and it was pleasing to see that we had 46 choristers on stage. This was, therefore, the largest number that we have ever assembled at a concert.

Many thanks must go to Nick, Rhian and Steve for all their hard work in putting the programme together and also to the committee for making the evening such a success. We must also thank the ‘ladies’ for supplying a buffet for the choir and guests after the concert which was held in the church hall.

Concert -Waun Wen Old Pupils Association

Following our ‘Annual’ on Saturday 12th June we performed at St Luke’s Church, Cwmbwrla for WOPA, the Waun Wen Old Pupils Association. This is an annual event put on by the association and it was the first time that the choir had been invited. Also taking part were the school choir of Waun Wen Primary. The audience were well entertained and we ended with both choirs singing our ‘Abba Medley’. This was totally unrehearsed but, with the added energy of the children, we got through it to a standing ovation. Thanks to our old friend Roy Lloyd for inviting us and for putting the concert together.

A sad month for the choir – chairman Paul Smith passed away very suddenly. Paul had been a member of the choir for 18 years and had served on the committee for 10 years before becoming chairman in 2008. Paul played rugby for Swansea Uplands in his younger days and was a current member of the 41 club. He was a very popular chairman and was the instigator of our trip to Birr last year. Paul was simply a wonderful person and will be sadly missed by all.

July

Our performances for July were centred around one very busy weekend. Firstly, on Friday 10^th we sang at the funeral of Paul Smith, our chairman, at All Saints in Oystermouth. This was obviously a very sombre occasion for all, and we sang Faure’s ‘Cantique de Jean Racine’, which was one of Paul’s favourite pieces.

That evening we sang at St Hilarys, Killay to raise money for church funds. We were joined by a number of young church members who sang musical hits from the shows. The evening was very well compered by Rev. Tim Williams, whose son was one of the soloists.

The next day, at lunch time, we sang at the wedding of Lee and Sarah Davies at St Peters in Newton. This meant that we performed at 3 different venues and for 3 unrelated causes. Is this a record? Our musical director, Nick, was very pleased with the commitment of the choir over this weekend, as at each venue there were over 36 voices. A tremendous achievement.

August

Unfortunately our first concert in August at Llanrhidian was cancelled for a number of reasons, but on Saturday 22^nd we sang at the wedding of Laura Keitch at St Teilo’s, Pontarddulais. This was a lovely occasion. The choir and Rhian were squeezed into the gallery at the back of the church and Nick was precariously perched in front, with only a wobbly rail between him and a 15 foot drop to the church below!!