CMVC Llais Y Fro Mar 2024

MARCH 2024 ISSUE 12 LLAIS Y FRO The magazine of Cowbridge Male Voice Choir

St David’s Day Concert 2024

This

Cover

Table of Contents Editorial.....................................4-5

David’s Concert review.....6-7

Jenkins firewalk!..............8-9

Association………..10

Team expansion…...11

choristers…….....…......12

on Jane Williams.13-14

Favourite………...…...15

Ahead……………..16

for Homes……………17

St

Bob

Patrons

Musical

New

Spotlight

Fan’s

Looking

Place

Signers

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our audience.

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St David’s Day Concert wow

photo: Every

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IS PROUDLY SPONSORED BY:

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1st March. CMVC

Jon Wilks Chairman, CMVC

Editorial

As Springtime begins to adorn our hedgerows and verges with the national flower and colours of Wales, my mood turns to positivity, embracing the idea of new life and refreshment.

It is fair to suggest that the last year or two for our choir has been Spring-like as we have stimulated growth and renewal. By my reckoning we have welcomed 24 new choristers, introduced multiple new repertoire songs, delivered a choir first by virtue of our BSL signing activity and appointed a deputy musical director and accompanist. Behind the scenes we have developed a fabulous website, launched a new Patrons scheme and, thanks to the tireless work of committee members and choristers, enjoyed overseas tours and brilliant new concert performances from Shrewsbury to Llandaff Cathedral.

If the history of male voice choirs teaches us anything in respect of success, it is that we can never rest on our laurels, however meritoriously earned. The choir landscape, sadly, is replete with evidence of choirs that were once successful but are now not meeting and performing.

Learning British Sign Language for ‘Both Sides Now’ with Heather Williams & Andrew Wellbeloved was an amazing and humbling experience.

Promise & hope…

For the gardener, Spring is a time of promise and hope, but he or she will only be able to benefit from the longer days and warmer weather if some work has been undertaken during the bleaker months. Tune into ‘Gardener’s Question Time’ on BBC Radio 4 and you would imagine that gardening is a 52 week occupation – and you daren’t miss one!

You’ll therefore hopefully understand when I talk about our choir tours and performances being the culmination of work, but only the further evidence of our efforts and energy. For our and every other choir, we are only as good as our last concert – and you literally never know who is in the audience!

Our choir only ever takes a 4 week break in August when we re-charge batteries, but even then our musical team will be reviewing repertoire and arrangements for the new year. If you want to be successful, then you simply have to keep working at it.

Keep working at it…!

Perhaps that is why we are so excited for the coming months as Spring turns into Summer. We have been working as hard on learning and finessing as I can ever remember, and we are all desperately keen to show you the results. Our forthcoming concerts at Llandaff, Hereford and St Helier (Jersey) are going to set some great new standards – be certain of that.

In the run up to those events, if you are the wife or relative of a chorister, please show some patience and understanding. His long showers are only due to a determination to practice in great acoustics. His long walks in silence are only because he is singing the full repertoire in his head. His long periods bedecked in headphones are only because he is listening to recordings from our chorister zone on the website – or at least he should be!

Many thanks for your continued, fantastic support.

Jon Wilks, Chairman

St David’s Day Concert Review

Deciding to produce our own concert to celebrate St David’s Day was a bold move and the choir felt a significant responsibility –having decided to do it, we had better do our Patron Saint proud!

Rest assured, St David, we were bang on it.

This was a joyous concert, full of effervescence, musicality, fun and great singing. The external weather was a true tempest (perhaps in honour of the great man’s birth circumstances in Pembrokeshire), but there was genuine warmth in the choir’s performance.

We were also thrilled to welcome Emma Edwards as guest soprano vocalist. Emma had performed with the choir during outings at the Royal Welsh Show and Margam Abbey and this was a further opportunity for her to shine which she took.

Meanwhile, her son, Archie Edwards, wowed us with his trumpet playing, following up on his appearance with the choir at Margam Abbey.

All told, this was a concert to be proud of for all concerned – and it was fantastic to have a sold-out audience at Holy Cross church to hear it. Thank you to all who braved the elements!

Every seat taken!

‘Both Sides Now’ signing was again a stand-out audience favourite.

Bob Jenkins’ Firewalk!

There are times in life when one feels genuinely humbled by other peoples’ resilience, determination, fortitude and courage.

So it is for your correspondent when considering the recent past of bottom bass chorister Bob Jenkins. His personal journey through surgery and treatment for cancers, all whilst during covid lockdown and the dreadful limitations that this put on his ability to receive support from family and loved ones was incredible. The fact that he has survived even more so. The fact that he felt that to show his appreciation to the brilliant charity that is Maggies for the support that they provided to him, well, words fail me. Mainly because that support involved a fire walk.

Congratulations from all of us Bob – what an example you are to all.

.

Bob’s fire walk for Maggies’ Cancer Charity was a full-on affair!

CMVC PATRONS ASSOCIATION

NOW LIVE!

After a huge amount of work from our vice Chair, Chris George, our Secretary Phil Insley and choir administrator Frank Maynard, our new Patrons Association is now live.

Available to anyone interested in the Choir, the Patrons Programme replaces Vice Presidency as your way of showing your support.

It costs a surprisingly large amount of money to run the choir (including the cost of uniforms, hire of rehearsal venues, cost of transport to venues, and the increasing cost of the purchase of music necessary for us to expand our repertoire)

As a charitable organisation the choir relies on its members, families, friends and donors to cover these costs. That’s where the Patrons Association comes in!

Available in 2 levels, joining our Patrons Association confers fantastic benefits on you, that vary depending on the level you choose.

SILVER gives you:-

• Discount tickets to our annual concert

• Your name in our Annual concert programme and on our website.

• Your own direct link to our bi-monthly Llais y Fro online magazine.

• Lapel badge.

GOLD gives you:-

• ALL the silver benefits PLUS…

• Choir CD

• Certificate of thanks

• Patrons Association gold lapel badge

• Other special stuff that we are working on!

SILVER level costs £20 per year GOLD level costs £50 per year

Contact the Patrons Association coordinator, Chris George, to register your interest:- chrisgeorge4880@icloud.com

MUSICAL TEAM EXPANSION!

CMVC is absolutely delighted to announce the appointment of two new members for our musical team.

Jane Coles (right of picture) is appointed Deputy Musical Director having excelled during her audition with the choir in February. Jane is also musically involved with Caerphilly MVC and Llantrisant MVC and is thrilled to now be joining Cowbridge in the Deputy MD role. She will attend rehearsal once a month to lead sectional practice and develop a full knowledge of our repertoire.

Scott Williams (second left) is appointed Deputy Accompanist and will work with Sandra Williams to develop the choir’s repertoire and learning of new pieces. He is already the CMVC organist, and this new development will further strengthen his links to the choir.

New Choristers

We are very pleased to welcome three new choristers into the ranks of CMVC. Please welcome:-

Additionally, we were recently delighted to award Alistair Anderson with his green jacket. Alistair’s debut on stage was the St David’s Day concert. He is pictured (centre) receiving his jacket from Deputy Chairman Chris George with MD Rhiannon Williams.

Keryl Jones Bottom Bass Huw Lloyd Baritones Williams Ennis Baritones

Spotlight on: Jane Coles!

Jane Coles – Deputy MD

Given Jane’s recent appointment as CMVC Deputy MD, we thought that you might like to know a little more about her!

Jane has enjoyed a varied career in music, as a keyboard player and backing vocalist in pop, soul and jazz bands, including Coast to Coast, the Watchmen and Nerys And The Soul Traders. In addition to her performance work, Jane is the owner of the widely acclaimed Forte School of Music, in Llandaff, with over 250 students and has also been the Honorary Local Representative for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music since 2014.

Jane won a scholarship to study the piano at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and then went on to study Jazz, Popular and Commercial Music at Newcastle College.

During her career, Jane has been delighted to have had the opportunity to perform with a range of incredibly talented artists and has had the good fortune of gaining audiences with Princess Diana, the Prince of Wales, King Charles and Queen Camilla.

As well as being the Deputy Musical Director of Cowbridge Male Voice Choir, Jane currently also holds the positions of Assistant Musical Director of Caerphilly Male Voice Choir and Accompanist of Llantrisant Male Choir.

The Fab 4 pose for their first team photo! From left; Sandra Williams, Scott Williams, Rhiannon Williams & Jane Coles.

Fan’s Favourite BOTH SIDES NOW

Inspiration first took hold on following a friend’s advice to watch the movie ‘CODA’ (children of deaf adults) that premiered on Apple TV and subsequently won an Oscar for ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Supporting Actor’ in 2022. The scene where Emilia Jones, playing the role of Ruby Rossi, auditions for a place at Berkely University and begins to use sign language to communicate with her deaf parents in the audience is heart rending.

The song that she chooses for her audition is Joni Mitchell’s ‘Both Sides Now’ and, drawing further inspiration from Strictly Come Dancing’s Rose Ayling-Ellis, the proposition to the choir was straightforward – we are going to learn Both Sides Now and some of you are going to sign it to the audience. Instruction was agreed with BSL’s Heather Williams and Andrew Wellbeloved, and the rest is rapidly being written into CMVC history. There is never a dry eye in the house!

Emilia Jones

In CODA.