Singing in the airy mountain, in the White Hut

The choir sang beautifully tonight 'up the mountain' at Coedeva, Cwmbran for an appreciative audience of lovely ladies, who also plied the choir with biscuits and juice. The choir were in excellent voice and Rhys was very much appreciated for the baritone solo in Mancini's Moon River!

It was a glorious, sunny and warm evening and the choir began with Rutter's  I will sing with the Spirit, the beautiful sub chorus beginning and the altos singing with a fine strong sound. Secondly 'The Rose  by Amanda McBroom was a great favourite, the choir wowing the audience with great pianissimi and soaring crescendos. Moon River from Breakfast at Tiffany's followed with its evocative accoustic guitar setting and the first set finished with  Neuam's Water of Tyne,  the choir giving fine expression to the enchanting folk tune, the watery, flowing  accompaniment backing the fine legato of the choir.

After the interval the livelier programme presented Anthem from the musical Chess , - very well received, Der Frohliche Wanderer, by Friedrich Moller. Hail Holy Queen from Sister Act  and  a rousing account of Mae hen wlad fy nhadau , the Welsh national anthem.  

There was a surprise from the audience, when they were told that Llangollen asked us in 2013 to sing at the fiftieth anniversary of the commencement of the Llangollan International Eisteddfod and the performance of  the Obernkirchen Children's choir founded with children orphaned by WW2. The Eisteddfod authorities asked the Nidus Choir to reproduce the winning entry, The Happy Wanderer. A comprehensive search for music revealed no results and the music had to be written down from a 78rpm record! Nevertheless, it was highly successful, and loved by members of the winning choir, who had been invited from Germany to visit  the Llangollen Eisteddfod to celebrate the anniversary, and who expressed their enormous pleasure at hearing their winning entry sung by the choir. At this point, a lady in the audience told the assembly, that she had been in a choir in that competition in 1952 which had competed against the Obernkirchen Choir! What a co-incidence!

There were warm words of thanks from the organisers and  the choir gave the choir a donation towards their visit to the World Choir Games in Belgium next year. Nick Dunbar was our lovely sound man and the concert was conducted by Evelyn Nicholson. MA. UCL, PPRNCM, A Mus LCM. The comments from the audience, were highly complimentary with praise for the the beauty of the sound and tone, for which the choir is famous.  A warm and cosy evening, enjoyed by everyone.