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A HISTORY of the SOCIETY over the

PAST FIVE YEARS

LAST UPDATED

19/06/2018

2017 / 2018

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REPORT ON THE ACTIVITIES IN 2016/2017

ST DAVID'S DAY DINNER 2018

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Welcome to the

Chelmsford & District Welsh Society

Membership is open to anyone with Welsh origins or connections, or to anyone with an appreciation of Welsh heritage and traditions.

Visitors and guests warmly welcomed to our meetings

OUR NEXT MEETING

AT THE CHELMSFORD CATHEDRAL CHAPTER HOUSE

WEDNESDAY June 28th

7.00p.m. for 7.30p.m.

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

plus

A GRAND QUIZ

with a strawberry supper

A COPY OF LAST YEAR'S AGM MINUTES ARE AVAILABLE

HERE

Only limited copies will be available at the meeting

so view or download your copy here if required.

NEXT CHARITY EVENT

AFTERNOON TEA

hosted by IVY PRICE

at Shirley and Don's

Saturday 30th June 2018 at 2.30 p.m.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

FROM MAY 2018 ONWARDS OUR MONTHLY MEETINGS WILL BE HELD THE 4th WEDNESDAY OF EACH MONTH.

THE JUNE 2018 MEETING WILL BE HELD ON

WEDNESDAY 28th JUNE.

THIS CHANGE HAD TO BE MADE TO FIT IN WITH THE AVAILABILITY OF THE CHAPTER HOUSE.

WE HOPE THAT YOU WILL STILL BE ABLE TO ATTEND OUR MONTHLY MEETINGS ON A

WEDNESDAY

RECENT EVENTS

MAY 2018

IN CONCERT WITH AFTERGLOW

BRIAN FARMER, PRESIDENT AFTERGLOW

May has been a busy month for Chelmsford and District Welsh Society. This year’s 4 day annual pilgrimage to the Land of My Fathers was a great success. We stayed at Bryn Meadows golf complex and enjoyed live musical entertainment every evening. During the day we visited the impressive remains of the Roman fortress of Isca Augusta in Caerleon, a statue to the Chartist Movement, and the 20 metre high statue commemorating the 1960 Six Bells colliery mining disaster. An underground tour of Big Pit colliery, and visits to Blaenavon Ironworks, the fortified 16th century Llancaiach Fawr manor house, the market town of Abergavenny and finally the 17th century mansion Tredegar House completed a super trip. The 23 May meeting was An Evening With Afterglow guitar and vocal duo. Rhiannon Howys, a West End musical theatre actress and the daughter of a member of the Society, accompanied by talented guitarist Reece Smith, gave virtuoso performances, including, amongst others, songs by Simon and Garfunkel, Donovan, U2, Dolly and the Beetles. At the end they were rewarded by thunderous applause from the audience and enthusiastic praise from Vice-president Ivy Price.

Members were sad to hear of the death of LLywella Davies. She had been too unwell to attend Society events for a long time. The last meeting of Brian Farmer’s successful year as President will be the AGM, followed by a Quiz Night, on Wednesday 27 June when Ivy Price will be installed as President for the 2018/19 season. The last event during Brian’s Presidency will be the annual concert at Chelmsford Cathedral on Saturday 9 June, commencing at 7.30pm. The choir will be Brian’s “local” choir, Aber Valley Male Voice Choir from Caerphilly, with supporting a cappella trio Serin from the Rhymney.

AFTERGLOW

RHIANNON HOWYS REECE SMITH MILLIE

MILLIE and MUM RHIANNON IVY PRICE THANKS AFTERGLOW

2018 Annual Choir Concert

ABER VALLEY MALE VOICE CHOIR

The 51st annual concert of Chelmsford and District Welsh Society, held at Chelmsford Cathedral on 9 June, was a splendid affair. It was the first visit to Chelmsford of the Aber Valley Male Voice Choir from Caerphilly, Society President Brian Farmer’s childhood home, and graced by the attendance of Cllr. Yvonne Spence, the Mayor of Chelmsford, a fellow Celt but from north of the border. The choir were smart in black evening dress and the national daffodil buttonhole during the first half, and resplendent in black and red waistcoats during the second. They opened with Llanfair, the well loved Welsh hymn, followed with Howard Goodall’s The Lord Is My Shepherd, David John Evans’s In The Beginning and finally Tydi a Roddaist (Thou Gavest), the music to which was composed by Arwel Hughes whilst waiting for a train to arrive. Serin, who began their musical lives as a trio of young schoolgirls and have developed into an outstanding a cappella trio of young ladies, then took to the stage. Their opening number, a haunting Cwsg Osian, (Sleep Osian) was greeted with long standing thunderous applause. They followed with Shirley Bassy’s Big Spender, then a splendid rendering of a folk song medley celebrating three welsh birds and concluded with Bet Middler’s The Rose. The first half ended with the choir singing Mozart’s O Isis and Osiris, Puccini’s Nessum Dorma from Turandot, a lovely The Lord’s Prayer by Albert Hay Malotte, and finally Gustav Holst’s grand World in Union (in celebration of the Welsh Rugby’s recent 6 Nations success?)

In her speech of Civic Welcome at the commencement of the second half, the Mayor congratulated the choir and Serin on their performance. The choir opened with Gwahoddiad (The Invitation), with its wonderful crescendo of Amens, followed with Pokarekare Ana, a Maori love song sung by Maori ladies during the great war, then Tell My Father, a song about the death of a slave during the American Civil War, and finally Alwyn Humphreys’s An American Trilogy. Serin began with a compilation of folk songs from their home area, followed by Haleliwia, then a haunting Salm 121 (in Welsh).Their final number, the first they had ever sung together as 13 year old schoolgirls, the Andrews Sisters’ Boogie Wooggie nearly brought the house down! What a performance! The choir’s last four numbers were Bring Him Home from Les Miserables, the Flying Pickets hit Only You,a song from Jekyll and Hyde, This is the Moment (good for weddings, apparently) and finally a nostalgic O Gymru. The well earned enthusiastic applause spread around the Cathedral for several minutes. The talented Musical Director and excellent MD, Geraint Evans, the glorious Serin trio of Caitlin Hudson, Rhianna Davies and Joanne Griffiths, and the wonderful accompanist Auralia Jones were rewarded with gifts of appreciation for a superb concert.The President, Brian Farmer will be very proud of the choir and Serin from his youthful haunts. The concert, which began with God save The Queen, ended with a joyous rendition of Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau. The Society are grateful to the people of Chelmsford and District who attend the annual concerts loyally throughout the years.