Saturday 25th to Sunday 26th March.
We left Swansea Airport by coach at 11:20 and travelled to Llangollen, breaking the journey near Welshpool. We booked into the Wild Pheasant Hotel and after a short rest we changed into our uniforms and drove to the Stiwt Theatre in Rhosllanerchrugog for a quick pre-concert rehearsal.
We were hosted by the Fron Male Voice Choir. They are based in the glorious Dee Valley in North East Wales. The village of Froncysyllte is at one end of the world-famous Poncysyllte Aqueduct, designed by Thomas Telford to take the Llangollen Canal across the River Dee and its broad, beautiful valley. Next year the Fron will celebrate 80 years since their founding. This year is also the 20th anniversary of their release of ‘Voices of the Valley’, the first of a five-album recording set, that introduced their sound to audiences far beyond North Wales.
The concert began with 6 items from the Fron MVC. We then filed onto the stage and our Tenor soloist; Daniel Davies sang the wonderful ‘Anthem’ from the musical ‘Chess’. Following on from this the Gwalia Singers sang five items from their repertoire, all very well received by our hosts and the audience. We were then joined on stage by the Fron MVC to sing ‘Y Tangnefeddwyr’ led by our MD, Matthew Ioan Sims, and accompanied by Rhian Liles, followed by ‘You’ll never walk alone’ led by Leigh Mason, the Fron Musical Director, with their Accompanist, Jason Ellis).
We began the second half with five more items before Daniel sang ‘Till I Hear You Sing’ from ‘Love Never Dies’. We then handed over the stage to the Fron MVC who sang their second set. To finish off the performance the two choirs joined together again for the singing of ‘Morte Christe’, led by Fron Music Team and then ‘Gwahoddiad”, led by Matthew & Rhian.
What a sound – two choirs coming together for a wonderful appreciative audience. It was a great concert to celebrate 60 years of the Gwalia singers and 20 years of ‘Voices of the Valley’. The evening was a real celebration of Welsh male voice singing and we are looking forward to their return visit in March 2007.
After the concert we were invited to remain for a buffet & beer After Glow where there was lots more singing before we headed back to our hotel. The following morning we left at 11:00 for the long journey home stopping at the Fountain Inn in Builth Wells for a Sundar roast and more singing. A great concert weekend, thanks to all those involved in organising it. (More photos and videos)
