|
Natalia
Romaniw |
Choir friend and local soprano, Natalia Romaniw,
performs in the final of “Welsh Singers Competition” supported by BBC
Cymru Wales at St
. David’s Hall, Cardiff on Monday 16th June 2008. She
is one of three soprano’s
and a tenor competing at the final where the winner will represent Wales
in the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2009.
The choir send her our very best wishes.
The competition will be broadcast on BBC Radio Cymru.
Further information www.stdavidshallcardiff.co.uk
|
City
Choir leads “Celtic Festival of Song” |
An eighty strong party from Dunvant Male Choir maintained it's unofficial motto “Have Music, will Travel” when it returned from a short tour to Co. Kerry in support of the county's charity fundraisers in aid of Parkinson's Disease. The tour had been well supported by publicity in “The Kerryman” and exposure on “Radio Kerry”
|
New
Life Members |
Ron Draisey and Cec Roderick both have achieved the unique distinction of being life members of the Dunvant Male Choir. This is awarded after twenty five years continuous service to the choir and both of these choristers have achieved not only 25 years service but also have both given outstanding service and dedication to the choir.
|
Tadcaster |
The choir has recently returned from a successful visit to Tadcaster , where a capacity audience was enthralled and delighted by the performance of the choir, and its far ranging and varied repertoire. The music team for this event were Hywel Evans & Richard John.
|
Patrons
Concert |
The 2008 concert will be held on 3rd October when the welcome return of Sir Willard White has already generated much interest in our Patrons.
The 2007 Patrons Concert, held in the Brangwyn Hall on the 29 th September was a resounding success. more.....
|
Choir
Chairman – Barry Evans |
'Barry Evans, the new Chairman, took up his role on the 26 February 2007 at the Choir Annual General Meeting having been Vice Chairman for the previous year.
Barry worked on the Railways for 39 years before retiring. He started his career at Swindon moving over time to Reading, Swindon, Swansea, London and Cardiff.
He was responsible for the maintenance and repair of High Speed Trains and Freight locomotives throughout Wales and the West and in his last 3 years before retiring was Head of Safety for English, Welsh & Scottish Railways covering the United Kingdom.
Barry joined the Dunvant Male Choir in 1986 and has been a bottom bass since the start. He enjoys the fun of being in a choir and the travel, especially to the USA, Canada and Germany leading to life long friendships and exchanges.'
|
Double “World Premiers” |
During an East England tour at the beginning of June 2007, the Dunvant Male Choir gave “World Premier's” to two choral items.
The choir performed both items at The Old Independent Church, Haverhill and at the Annual Concert of the Chelmsford and District Welsh Society held at Christ Church, London Road under the baton of Jonathan Rogers and both organ and piano accompaniment of Hywel Evans.
|
Young
Theatre Competition 2007 |
In front of an enthusiastic Grand Theatre
audience, Ms Julie Evans representing the sponsors, The Principality
Building Society, 
awarded
Joanne Dennis the “Welsh Musical Theatre Young Singer of the Year” prize
for 2007. Joanne was awarded a £1000 cash prize towards her advancement
in Musical Theatre and the commemorative “Gower Trophy”.
In 2005 Joanne was awarded a scholarship to join the BBC National Chorus of Wales, having previously studied at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Cardiff.
The three other finalists, selected from twenty-three entrants at a recent preliminary round, were Catherine Mort, Sioned Saunders and Aled Powys Williams.
The three adjudicators, Stephanie Benavente, Claire Hammacott and Rosamund Shelley praised the standard at both preliminary round and this final, where they commented that the finalists had raised their performance standards for this prestigious occasion. They also praised the outstanding support given to each artiste by Guest Accompanist, Jeffrey Howard.
The
organising Dunvant Male Choir, under Conductor Jonathan Rogers and accompanist
Hywel Evans, supported the event with items from their musical theatre
repertoire and previous winner Hayley Gallivan added a classy contribution.
A feast of top class Musical Theatre items was enjoyed by all present and a letter by the 2006 winner Connie Fisher was included in the programme which encouraged every entrant with her motto
“Climb Ev'ry Mountain, ‘til you find your dream!”
|
Yes. Connie Fisher is MARIA |
Choristers and supporters of Dunvant Male Choir were over the moon when Connie won the competition for the leading role in Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical show ‘The Sound of Music'
Connie Fisher along with Choir President, Peggy Morgan
and Choir Chair, Ray Restall
Connie won her way through numerous heats to win the final competition last week. The other competitors were of such a high standard that each week became a nail-biting interlude for Connie's supporters, but her determination and tremendous ability to sing music theatre songs won her through.
Connie was the winner of this year's Young Theatre Singer of the Year competition held at the Grand Theatre in February. That means that two of our previous winners now have leading roles in the West End. The other is David Thaxton who is appearing in Les Miserables.
Don't forget to come along to the Grand Theatre, Swansea, next February to enjoy what is the best Musical Theatre night of the year.
|
New Choir
Chairman |
Barry Evans
|
Music
Director
|
|
Return
To Gower |
A double CD that has been compiled from our very early recordings. These CD's feature many items that are not available on our current recordings
|
Remember
The Voice |
A new CD recorded in the summer of 2007
| Bryn
Terfel becomes Vice-President. |
Dunvant Male
Choir are pleased to strengthen their ties with Bryn Terfel. 
Bryn originally went to America with the Dunvant Choir in 1985 and again
in 1987.
Arwyn Walters, our then Music Director, was quick to see that Bryn had
a future, that was to become synonymous with the highest standards that
are demanded of world class singers, and when Bryn was asked to become
a vice president of the choir, there was no hesitation in his reply.
| Next UK Engagement |
|
|
| Web
Site |
This Web Site has been developed for the choir by Euroad. Although we
think it is of a high standard, should you have any constructive comments
about its improvement then please let us know.
|
Independent
Revue by Robert Gould |
West End Sound of Music star Connie Fisher swapped her nun's wimple for an adjudicator's hat at the Grand Theatre, Swansea on Saturday March 1 as a member of the adjudicating panel for the 2008 Welsh Young Musical Theatre Singer of the Year contest. During the evening Connie also made a welcome return to the stage where she was herself the 2006 winner of the contest before going on to earn stardom as the winner of the BBC's How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria talent show.
After being greeted by rapturous applause from the audience in her native Wales, she treated the crowd to a rendition of Cole Porter 's classic tongue twister, “The Physician” (first sung by Gertrude Lawrence in Nymph Errant in 1933). Then she returned to the score of The Sound of Music to sing “Edelweiss”, accompanied by the Dunvant Male Choir, before completing her short programme with a virtuoso rendition of Charles Strouse and Richard Maltby's “Everybody Wants To Do A Musical” - a song from the musical Nick and Nora she had performed on the same stage the night she became the Welsh Young Musical Theatre Singer of the year two years ago.
Miss Fisher's performance was the icing on the cake of a wonderful evening of musical theatre performing in the sixth annual staging of an event organized by the Dunvant Male Choir and sponsored by the Principality Building Society. Four young Welsh singers - Owain Llyr Williams, Christopher Orton, Catherine Mort and Laura Armstrong - who had all been selected for the final from 24 singers who took part in a preliminary round in January, delighted the Grand Theatre audience with a high standard of vocal performing and a wide range of musical material.
The winner of the title was 25 year old
Christopher Orton, who hails from Chepstow and whose 
musical
theatre credits include roles in the Watermill Theatre's productions
of The Hot Mikado and Martin Guerre as well as
Jason
Robert Brown 's Songs For A New World in Freiburg in
Germany. His varied programme in the final consisted of “Streets Of
Dublin” (from A Man Of No Importance ), “What Is It About
Her?” (from Andrew
Lippa 's The Wild Party ), “Love To Me” (from The
Light In The Piazza ) and “This Is The Moment” (from Jekyll
and Hyde ). In each item he totally inhabited the character of
the song and was vocally flawless - demonstrating that he is not only
a worthy holder of the title Welsh Young Musical Theatre Singer of
2008 but also a performer to seriously look out for in the future.
|
Cancion
de Francisco (Francisco’s Song)
|
The story behind the song
The picture shows Nick Treharne standing near the grave of Francisco Agra, an
Argentinian sailor who died on the 20th.May 1907, 100 years ago. Francisco Agra
is buried in St. Augustines churchyard at Penarth.
He was only 22 years old when he died aboard his ship in Penarth Docks, many
miles from his own home in Argentina. . Nick Treharne, a musician, formerly a photographer for the Western
Mail, and presently living in Penarth, had been looking for a subject for a
choral piece for The Dunvant Male Choir. He was taking photographs around St
Augustines churchyard in Penarth when he came across the grave of Francisco
Agra. At the time Nick was learning Spanish and this find ‘struck a chord’
with him thus giving him the inspiration to write a song about the Argentinian
sailor. He obtained a copy of Francesco’s death certificate and researched
a little of the history of the trade between Wales and Argentina. This resulted
in Nick’s composition of the choral piece ‘Cancion de Francisco (Francisco’s
Song’). He then took the lyrics to highly regarded accompanist Jeffrey Howard,
formerly accompanist to Dunvant Male Choir, to write the piano accompaniment
before presenting the finished work to the choir who gladly added it to their
repertoire.
| Ladies
Section |
We aim to encourage partners of the choir to participate in all aspects of choir life: and also offer a variety of social activities, such as day trips, dances, quizzes, etc.
We are a friendly group of ladies of different ages who would welcome all who wish to join us at our monthly meetings which are held at the Dunvant Workingmen’s Club on the first Thursday of each month at 7 pm.
If you
would like to have an informal chat before coming along to one of our
meetings, please do not hesitate to contact one of the names below:
Judith Cozens Chairperson Tel: 01792 - 702326
Eirwen
Margetts Vice Chair Tel: 01792 - 206259
Lynda
Lock Secretary Tel: 01792 - 521838
Janet
Wright Treasurer Tel: 01792 - 297342
| Gower Views |
You will have, no doubt, noticed that on the cover of our new CD, we have decided to portray the Mumbles and Gower through the eyes of a local artist. The watercolours of Jeff Kirkhouse are sought after throughout the principality and his interpretation of his chosen work leaves the lasting impression of serenity and beauty of the natural sights of the Gower peninsula.
The
cover photograph is of Caswell Bay. This has been 
painted
looking at the bay from the hill, which leads to Bishopstone. The back
cover shows The Mumbles and Lighthouse, and the CD itself sports the
picture of the world famous Mumbles Train. Disappointingly, the Mumbles
Train is no more, but with artists of the calibre of Jeff Kirkhouse,
who so ably captures in his watercolours the beauty and history of Swansea
and The Gower, the Train will never be forgotten.
Further pictures by Jeff are available to be seen
HERE...
|
Please use our CONTACTS
page or email -
|
