Tenby Male Choir – A Capital weekend

The choir travelled to Cardiff on Saturday taking up an invitation from the Cardiff Arms Male Voice choir to attend and appear in their 50^th anniversary concert. The concert took place virtually in the shadow of the Arms Park at St. John the Baptist church. The highly respected Dowlais Male Voice choir had also been invited so we were in good company with about 100 choristers in all combining for three joint sessions as well as each choir doing its own solo spot.

The Three choirs

In terms of solo spots we would like to think they saved the best till last as we were the third choir to sing in the second half of the concert. The other choirs had performed well and got a good reception but there was a clear distinction in the positive audience reaction to our entertaining performance. One audience member amongst many who said how much they enjoyed the concert told me that after our performance of My Grandfather’s Clock he would never see the song in the same light again.

The choir lining up for their session.

The choir performed Y Tangnefeddwyr, Bring Him Home,Ora Me Jay Ka Jo and My Grandfather’s clock. As usual our MC David Blackmore entertained the audience with his introduction to our session and one of our biggest challenges these days is living up to the introduction!!

No weekend away is just about our formal concert, however, and so the concert was followed by an excellent buffet at the Angel Hotel where we enjoyed the customary “afterglow” with all choirs putting on some ad-hoc acts and also singing in unison. To say the least this was a varied evening surpassing many others.

The first surprise was our discovery that there was a high school choir from Mountain View, near San Francisco, California in the hotel and we invited them to “sing us a song”. We were taken aback by their performance which featured three songs the first of which was Myfanwy. These talented young people received a well deserved and prolonged standing ovation for this. We in turn provided them with a rousing rendition of the American trilogy which clearly delighted them. Before the young choir left they sang the Star Spangled Banner and we responded with Mae Hen Wlad fy Nhaddau.

Given the solemnity of those two songs it was little surprise that what followed might not be quite as dignified and certainly dignity was not at the forefront of the minds of five members of the Tenby Male choir who shortly afterwards performed what might best be called an “adult” version of Ghost Riders in the Sky. The Quintet complete with cowboy hats (one looking more like Crocodile Dundee than Roy Rogers) were guitarist John “Tenderloin” Butland, Kevin “I’ll ride them my way” Morgan, Charlie “Chaps” McFee, Phil “Down Under” Mumford and “Flash” Gordon Hughes

Ghost Riders

For those with a fondness for the sanctity of music it was sad to see the enthusiasm with which the performance was greeted by young, old, male and female members of the audience.

Not to be beaten one of the Cardiff choir then responded with an hilarious take off of this called Ghost Chickens in the Sky and he too got universal applause.

This was the first “away” trip for some of our new members and one of them did say to me on the bus coming home that in many years as a member of a Male Voice choir this was the most enjoyable trip he had been on.

There was a final sting in the tail for us when we arrived at Kilgetty. I am familiar with the phrase “What goes on tour stays on tour” but Sue Williams the wife of our MD “Wilbur” Williams had clearly misunderstood the concept as whilst we had all reached Kilgetty her suitcase was still “on tour” in their Cardiff bedroom. I was out of earshot of the happy couple but I can only assume that in this hour of need our ever mild-mannered and taciturn MD would have said something along the lines of “Never mind dear. These things happen!!”

But there was a good Samaritan at hand in the form of the lady coach driver from Evans Coaches of Milford who said that she had to take a coach up to Cardiff the following Tuesday and would pick up the case. Now that is what I call exceeding expectations.

Today the choir are having their Spring "meet and greet" day out where we hope to take a bit of singing out of the normal confines of a church to various stops in the county. The trip starts with a bus ride from the Arcade, Saundersfoot and will visit Narberth initially for breakfast and then various other towns.

So this is what Male Voice choirs are about. We are benefiting from new members some young and some more senior but we always have room for more people who want to come and get a taste of the enjoyment of singing in its many forms.

New people are always welcome to join our organisation even if they don’t feel able to join in the singing part of it. There is a lot to do in a choir and there is a place for people who want to join in the social side but also help out with the various administrative jobs that go with running a choir. Whether you sing or just support you will always be welcome on choir rehearsal, concert and away day trips or longer tours. For the next few weeks we will be rehearsing at the county club so feel free to come along to watch or talk to choir members.

Our next concert is on Tuesday 10^th May at St. Johns Church in aid of Cancer Care (Macmillan nurses Cancer Research Tenby and Tenovus). The concert begins at 8pm.

If you can’t make it to a concert or rehearsal but would like to know more about us then look at our website www.tenbymalechoir.org or Facebook account (just do an internet search for Tenby Male Choir Facebook).

Alternatively our secretary David Stewart-Walvin is always glad to receive a phone call from interested people on 01834 844926.

Tenby Male Choir – A week to remember

Male Voice Choirs are made up of people from a wide variety of backgrounds and ages with one thing in common, their love of singing. Last week saw youngest member Wesley Davies reach 23 and Jim Taylor reach 89, both second tenors. This was topped, however, by Wesley’s grandfather, Duncan Hilling reaching his 90th birthday on 14th March.

As a special treat Duncan was allowed to conduct the choir for the last 15 minutes of our rehearsal on Tuesday night. Little did he realise that whilst he was waving his arms upstairs, his wife Audrey, also 90, was downstairs finalising arrangements for a surprise party with old friends, partners of the choir and of course family.

“King” Duncan with wife Audrey

A stunned Duncan was very moved, so much so that he was lost for words - not a common occurrence for Duncan. To mark the event in the words of Chairman Paul Varallo, the choir gave Duncan something as old as he was, an original newspaper the Sunday Pictorial, dated Sunday 14^th March.1926. A Day to Remember. After that the evening continued with a wonderful buffet, tasty cake, good conversation and not a little beer and wine.

It’s great to see Duncan fighting fit at 90 but if he had tried a little harder and been born just 47 years earlier he would have shared his birthday with Albert Einstein. He’s in good company.

Duncan with choir gift “A day to remember”.

We are fortunate in a climate where some male voice choirs are struggling to keep up their numbers, to continue to grow. This year already we have three new members, all very welcome additions to the top tenor section which has been a bit short of numbers recently. The three new members are Terry Williams, Henry Johnson, and Chris Aaron who have backgrounds in construction, local government and chemical engineering amongst other things from time to time. In common with the existing character of the choir they are also originally from far afield Terry from Bath, Henry from Kent and Chris from Yorkshire

It’s great to see new singing members but a choir is more than just about singing. There is an active social side to choir membership, including travelling to away venues. New people are always welcome to join our organisation even if they don’t feel able to join in the singing part of it. There is a lot to do in a choir and there is a place for people who want to join in the social side but also help out with the various administrative jobs that go with running a choir. I suppose it’s a bit like a football or rugby club where there are both the players and other very valuable people backing them up. Please get in touch if you want to be involved in any way with your local choir.

Our next concert is on Thursday 7^th April at St, Mary’s church. Although we have already done the traditional St. David’s Day concert this next concert marks the start of our regular programme of concerts. We will hopefully delight our audience with the fruits of our winter labours on some new songs, so don’t miss out!!

If you can’t make it to a concert but would like to know more about us then look at our website www.tenbymalechoir.org or Facebook account (just do an internet search for Tenby Male Choir Facebook).

Alternatively our secretary David Stewart-Walvin is always glad to receive a phone call from interested people on 01834 844926.

Our concert season starts with our traditional concert on St. David’s day which will be in support of St. John’s church funds on Tuesday, 1^st March at 8pm.

The choir ready for a new concert season.

Each of our concerts has a different programme for the night but it will be a selection from our 2016 repertoire which comprises the following songs.

Amen	An American Trilogy	This is the Moment
Anthem (from Chess)	Three Yugoslavian Folk Songs	Bring Him home
Unchained Melody	Bui Doi	By Babylon’s Wave
What Would I Do with- out My Music?	Calon Lân	Christus Salvatur
Climb Every Mountain	Divine Brahma	Fields of Athenry
Grandfather’s Clock	Gwahoddiad	Hiraeth
Home Upon The Hill	Llanfair	May Each day
Men of Harlech	Morte Christe	My Lord What a Morning
O Gymru	O Isis and Osiris	Pan For Nos Yn Hir
Portrait of My Love	Rachie	Rhythm of Life
When the Saints	Y Tangnefeddwyr

The repertoire demonstrates the variety of music which you can enjoy at one of our concerts. As you can see there are stirring hymns, songs from the hit parades of yesteryear or from the shows and musicals which we all love. Some are, of course in Welsh but also some in other languages which we have adopted over the years.

Our concerts usually involve a soloist as well and we like to give an opportunity to other musicians. For the St. David’s Day concert we are delighted to have a member of St. John’s church Melanie Walker who originates from Rugby but studied music at Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. This should be something quite different for us and our audience as Melanie plays the Marimba, a large wooden percussion instrument resembling a xylophone

We are also grateful to McCarthy and Stone, developers of the Paxton Court retirement homes for sponsoring the concert.

On the day before the St. David’s Day concert on 29^th February we will be performing a mini-concert on stage at the Torch Theatre. Singing will start at 7pm before the film screening of the film “Save our Choirs” The film is principally based on Blaenavon Male Voice choir. Despite the number of James Bond look-a-likes in the Tenby choir, we feature only in a small way but we were glad to help. The film is about the danger of decline in Male Voice choirs and how it can be prevented. A few years ago Blaenavon were struggling with a dwindling membership as they failed to attract new young members. The film tells the story of the choir's journey from the edge of obscurity to becoming the talk of the choral community. Like many traditional choirs, they failed to communicate with a changing digital world and had to completely re-think their strategy.

The film makers Focus Shift Films helped the choir which had been one of Wales' most successful choirs to claw their way back into the spotlight and go on to win Best British Choir at the Cornwall International Male Voice Choral Festival.

It is well worth coming along to enjoy this film if you have any interest in singing and especially if you have wondered whether being in a choir could be right for you. It is a chance to see why men join choirs, what the experience brings and how much they enjoy it. There is the added bonus of a free performance by Tenby Male choir prior to the screening.

Tickets are available from The Torch Theatre box office or their website.

If you can’t make it to see the film or our St. Davids Day concert but would like to know more about us then look at our website www.tenbymalechoir.org or Facebook account (just do an internet search for Tenby Male Choir Facebook).

Alternatively our secretary David Stewart-Walvin is always glad to receive a phone call from interested people on 01834 844926.

Tenby Male Choir – Film Stars?

The choir held its annual dinner on Sunday 25^th January at the Giltar Hotel. It was very well attended by choristers, partners and other choir supporters. Our president Roy Noble was present as usual and he was in fine form with his tales and reflections on many things relevant to male voice choirs.

Roy is always entertaining and gave an interesting after dinner speech with plenty of humour.  This was also the first official duty for new chairman Paul Varallo who thanked various members for their efforts during the past year and also gave out long service certificates to a number of members.

All members of the choir were pleasantly surprised with a commemorative crystal glass inscribed for the Tenby Male choir 40^th anniversary and accompanist Jill Williams “the best accompanist there is” in the words of Paul was presented with a bouquet of flowers by top tenor Joe Varallo.

An evening of really first class food and service was rounded off with a few of the choir’s favourite repertoire items and a good time was had by all.

On 29^th February at 7pm in the Torch Theatre there is a screening of the film “Save our Choirs” in which Tenby Male choir feature in a small part. The film is principally based on Blaenavon Male Voice choir. A few years ago they were struggling with a dwindling membership as they suffered like so many other male voice choirs to attract new young members and of course in such circumstances choir’s age and lose members as a result. The film tells the story of the choir's journey from the edge of obscurity to becoming the talk of the choral community. Like many traditional choirs, they failed to communicate with a changing digital world and had to completely re-think their strategy.

With the help of film company Focus Shift Films this choir who had been one of Wales' most successful choirs clawed their way back into the spotlight and went on to win Best British Choir at the Cornwall International Male Voice Choral Festival.

This film offers guidance to other choirs in a similar situation and can inspire the choral community to evolve in a digital world.

It is well worth making a date in your diary to come along and watch the film if you have any interest in singing and especially if you have wondered whether being in a choir could be right for you. It is a chance to see why men join choirs, what the experience brings and how much they enjoy it.

The choir will be attending on the night of the film along with other local choirs and it is hoped that the choirs will perform in the foyer of the theatre so you should have the double enjoyment of live performance and the film. It’s a great chance to find out about choirs generally about any of the local choirs specifically and to understand more about choral life. Its not just about singing but it is a fulfilling and enjoyable social life with a variety of different forms of performance and plenty of travel.

Tickets are available from The Torch Theatre box office or their website.

If you can’t make it to see the film but would like to know more about us then look at our website www.tenbymalechoir.org or Facebook account (just do an internet search for Tenby Male Choir Facebook).

Alternatively our secretary David Stewart-Walvin is always glad to receive a phone call from interested people on 01834 844926.

Tenby Male Choir – The choir says goodbye to Bobby

It was a sad occasion for the choir on 13^th January when they attended the funeral of long serving and senior choir member Bobby Turnbull at the age of 94. The funeral took place in St. Mary’s church. As part of a very moving service the choir sang Ely Jenkins prayer and after the service the choir formed around the coffin of their friend and choir member to sing Speed Your Journey. They then led the funeral procession out of the church to form a guard of honour in persistent rain as the coffin was carried out.

Bobby had become a member of the choir shortly after his cherished wife Mary passed away in 1989. He missed her very much and being in the choir helped him significantly with his recovery from that sad occasion. He was made a Life Member of the Choir some years ago in recognition of his exceptional service and commitment to the Choir. One of the tasks he is remembered for amongst many is as the guardian and salesman of choir cassette tapes for one of the choir’s earlier recordings. He had the spirit of the British Bulldog and applied this to the custody of the cassettes.
 

Bobby lost his own father as a young lad and was brought up by his mother and at the age of 14 he entered work in the coal mines of his Durham home at Horden Colliery just before the start of the World War 2 and so will have played his part in the critical extraction of coal to fuel the factories so crucial to the war effort. Not long after commencing work in the mine Bobby “misinformed” his employers about his age so that he could qualify for work at the much more dangerous and demanding coal face simply because it earned higher wages.

In the early 1950s however the coalmines of the North East came increasingly under the threat of closures and so Bobby moved his family to Nuneaton for security and also better conditions in the NCB mining accommodation. During his time in the North East Bobby had trained and raced greyhounds and also bred budgerigars and canaries. He had to give up his “Kree” of birds when he moved but he did take with him one canary and a budgerigar with one leg!!  In later years in the midlands he worked for Dunlop and for Jaguar but in retirement moved to Tenby.

He was very much a family man with two daughters Mary and Margaret who blessed him with four grandchildren Joanne and Elizabeth and David and Stephen. Stephen read a very emotional eulogy as part of the service.

In 2003 he joined a few of Tenby choristers on a Tour of Eastern States of USA, to support the dedication of the British memorial to 9-11. The Tenby choir members were part of an invitational choir named 'the Comrades Choir and sang in Washington with the US Army chorus, in Boston with the Sangefest Male Choir.

During that visit the Tenby members decided to make the most of their visit by walking to many of the landmarks and sights of New York but after the first day Bobby suffered numerous blisters.  In a display of that “bulldog spirit” referred to earlier he simply changed into sandals and continued to walk.  Apparently he didn’t think he would ever have another chance to come to New York and so he was not going to miss out on the sightseeing.

Bobby will be long remembered and much missed by the members of the choir.

Tenby Male Choir – Terry to Spend More Time with his Family

Long serving choir Chairman Terry Evans handed over the reins to incoming chairman Paul Varallo at the AGM on Tuesday December 8^th. Terry joined the choir only a very short time after it was formed and so is almost a founder member. This was some forty years ago and in that time Terry has served the choir in many capacities not least as Chairman for six years.

Terry has been a very dependable and hands on chairman always ready to get his hands dirty if there was a job which needed doing but for which there was no one available.

In the last year, an especially busy one for the choir as it was our fortieth anniversary we had a huge concert programme with 31 concerts in all including four very special gala concerts where we invited other distant and local choirs plus the Manchester based Integra brass band and award winning Goodwick Brass band. There were outdoor events at Saundersfoot, Cresswell Quay, Lawrenny, Pembroke Castle (where we were supported by Only Men Aloud!!), Hotel concerts in the Giltar Hotel and numerous concerts in aid of a wide spread of local and international charities.

It started with the St David’s Day concert on 1^st March and finished with four concerts in a week in Malta on our anniversary tour at the end of October. So we had eight hard, but always enjoyable, months.

In his handover speech Terry gave credit to the hard work of all of the committee and especially the Secretary David Stewart-Walvin and Treasurer David Blackmore. He also thanked our musical team of Director Ian “Wilbur” Williams and Accompanist Jill “no relation” Williams.

"Outgoing Chairman - Terry Evans"

Musical Director Ian then gave his view of the year from a musical perspective and complimented the choir for their efforts both in terms of hard work, improvement and also attendance at rehearsals and concerts alike.

So it was the job of new Chairman Paul Varallo to look forward and stated that he was “honoured to have been appointed as Chairman of this wonderful choir” He expressed his hope to build on the success that we have had under Terry's stewardship and looked forward to the challenges of 2016 with optimism saying “We're a good choir and I'm confident that with the choristers and the music team we have, we will only get better.”

"Incoming Chairman - Paul Varallo"

The committee was elected with founder member Tom Pearce as Vice-Chairman whilst David Stewart-Walvin as secretary and David Blackmore as treasurer will continue in those posts for the coming year. Other committee members are Geoff Horton-Jones, Ken Fryer, David James, Roger Stephens, Charlie McFee, and Terry Evans [Automatic as Past Chairman]

The choir begins a short Xmas break following a Xmas get together at our headquarters in the Tenby and County Club but will return on January 5^th to begin a new year.

Having mentioned a number of people during the year who have given their time to the choir we would also like to express our thanks to our regular supporters and to many other people in the Tenby area who support our concerts and make it all worthwhile. A Happy Xmas to you all with special good wishes to one of our oldest members who has not been able to attend this year, Bobby Turnbull.

"Bobby Turnbull"

In mentioning above that we have had very good attendance at rehearsals and concerts this demonstrates what enjoyment singing provides. If it did not then attendances and membership would slip away but this is not the case. We have a number of new members this year including some younger ones making our membership just about 50 now but there is always room for more. .

If you would like to come and join us then look at our website www.tenbymalechoir.org or Facebook account (just do an internet search for Tenby Male Choir Facebook).

Alternatively our secretary David Stewart-Walvin is always glad to receive a phone call from interested people on 01834 844926.

Tenby Male Choir – The boys are back in town.

This week it was back to rehearsals for another coming season having returned from our tour of Malta.

After many months of planning and hard work by our tour co-ordinator Peter Spacey the time had finally come for us to fly off to Malta for our 40^th anniversary tour. And so for the last week in October the tour went pretty much without a hitch.

With substantial assistance from the Lions International Malta concerts were arranged in three magnificent venues and all of them had good audiences. We sang in the Stella Maris Church in Sliema first of all and finished with our concert in the St. Paul’s Protestant Cathedral in the capital city of Valetta. Both of these are magnificent venues but magnificent though they were, they were eclipsed by our concert in Gozo where we sang at the St. George’s Basilica, the baroque Roman Catholic Church in Victoria. It is not often the choir will have the privilege to sing at such splendid venues and we are pleased that we were able to do them justice with an excellent performance in all of them.

We also sang at the Union club of Malta with a more light-hearted repertoire to a members only audience with the choir being honorary members for the evening. I am sure that we left the audience wanting more in every case which is always a good way to conclude. The choir all wore red poppies on their choir shirts for this performance.

I did say the tour went pretty much without a hitch but there was one minor hitch or more of an unhitch really when MD Wilbur during a particularly energetic burst of conducting found that one of the straps on his braces inconveniently came loose. I imagine that this may have been a first for the Stella Maris Church. Fortunately, the other strap held firm and there were no injuries amongst the front row of dignitaries. Most of all Wilbur did not allow this to impact on the professionalism of his conducting.

In between concerts and rehearsals the choir put on impromptu singing sessions on request in the hotel lobby and in local hostelries. We were also able to visit many of the historic venues and exhibitions on the islands and also partook with enthusiasm in the more recent practice of imbibing the local brew called Cisk. We understand the custom is known as getting well and truly “Cisked” though of course none of the choir went quite that far.

Some of the choir supporters also took amateur videos of our performances and these are available on Youtube. Just do a search on “Youtube Tenby Male Choir, Malta” and I recommend the video of “Bring Him Home” to get an idea of the singing and the surroundings.

Although our season has ended now we do have one final commitment of the year when we will sing at the Remembrance Day Parade on Sunday 08 November. Given the amount of history surrounding Malta’s valiant fight and significant loss of life in WWII, it is a fitting service for us all to return to.

There are also links to choir videos on our excellent website at www.tenbymalechoir.org and you can read or even add to our Guestbook from the home page. We also have a Facebook account if you want to be one of our Friends.

If ever there was a convenient time to come and join your local choir this is the time as we start the learning process of new songs in earnest and also brush up on any weak areas of existing songs without the pressure of concerts to perform.