BRECON CHOIR FESTIVAL
Gŵyl Gorawl Aberhonddu
Watch this space for our 2023 programme:20th - 23rd July 2023
Brecon Choir Festival was a brand new festival for 2022, booked for the weekend of 22nd - 24th July across several venues in the town. Brecon has a rich musical heritage with many choirs and successful festivals across other genres.
As organisers we had felt for a long time that there was something missing from the calendar - a festival to showcase the best choirs locally and further afield in some of the outstanding venues that we are proud to have in the town.
Our aim was to put on a show of high-quality music whilst making the festival as inclusive as we can make it. Feedback so far has been that we achieved just that.
2022's Grand Concert saw Aberhonddu & District Male Choir joined by Dunvant Male Voice Choir, the longest continuously singing male voice choir in Wales. Other acts included Talgarth Male Choir, Brecon Singers, Brecon Cathedral Choir and Alive & Kickin' Community Choir.
​
We were delighted that Mark Salmon a London-based poet and chorister with London Welsh, Cor y Boro and Eschoir joined us to compere the Friday and Saturday night concerts.
On top of the concerts, Eschoir led a musical walking tour of the town on the Saturday and there were rousing ‘afterglows’ on the Friday and Saturday evenings in The Clarence Inn when we collectively as audience and choirs had the chance to end the night in song!
​
Children from two local primary schools and Sennybridge YFC's choir sang in Bethel Square on the Saturday morning.
​
To contact the organisers please email planning@breconbuzz.co.uk
Formed in 1969 Talgarth Male Choir has been entertaining audiences for over 50 years. During this period, hundreds of concerts have been given throughout the United Kingdom and a considerable sum has been raised for numerous charities. The choir has sung at the Royal Albert Hall on six occasions, twice at the Millennium Stadium as part of the World Choir and three times in the Festival of Remembrance concert at St. David's Hall, Cardiff.
The choir has visited Holland as part of a combined Welsh Choir and have also had tours to Brittany, Italy, Spain and to Belgium where twice they have sung at the Menin Gate.
Ashley Jones
TAlive & Kickin' Community ChoirLead
Founded in 2013 by singer songwriter Tanya Walker, the Alive & Kickin’ Community Choir Brecon is a choir for people of all backgrounds and singing abilities.
​
Thanks to Tanya’s enthusiasm and boundless energy, what started as a small choir with only a hand-full of members has now grown to a well-established and popular choir performing at many events in Brecon and beyond.
123-456-7890
Tess Brown
Aberhonddu & District Male Choir
Côr Meibion Aberhonddu a’r Cylch/Aberhonddu & District Male Choir was founded in 1937 in the heart of the Brecon Beacons National Park – the Voices of the Beacons. The Choir have performed at many prestigious venues across the country including the Royal Albert Hall on numerous occasions, and in the Millennium Stadium, Millennium Center as well as in the Cathedrals of Southwark, Worcester, Liverpool Anglican, and Brecon. The Choir has sung in Craig-y-Nos, Brangwyn Hall, Swansea, Cardiff Castle, Shrewsbury Abbey and is the first Male Choir to sing in the Chapel Royal of St Peter Ad Vincula in the Tower of London by special request of the Head Yeoman of the Guard.
​
They have been honoured to represent Brecon at their twin towns of Saline (USA), Gouesnou (Brittany) and made friends in Ribe, Denmark.
​
The members of the Choir come from very varied backgrounds, including ex-Policemen, Military Men, Teachers and Farmers. Their main aim and fondness is the love of singing but all amiably led by their Musical Director of over 30 years, Mrs Lynnette Thomas who is pivotal to the Choir’s success. The Choir has been honoured to have Llio Evans as their President who is a renowned soprano from the village with the long name on the island of Anglesey. Llio gained a first class honours degree at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama before going on to receive an MA with distinction from the Wales International Academy of Voice.
123-456-7890
Lisa Rose
Brecon Cathedral Choir
The present members of Brecon Cathedral Choir are today's successors in the long line of musicians who have enhanced the worship at this holy place for over 900 years.
​
There are between 14 and 18 Choristers, including local children aged between 8 and 13 who sing the Soprano or Treble line in the choir.
The Brecon Cathedral Choir Trust was set up in 2003, with the aim of 'empowering young people through the gift of music', enabling the choristers to receive free music tuition.
​
The adults and teenagers who sing alto, tenor and bass in the choir are called Lay Clerks and Choral Scholars. They rehearse on Thursday evenings and join with the choristers to sing evensong on Fridays and for the two Sunday services. They do so as volunteers, and some travel considerable distances (from as far away as Neath, Abergavenny, Newport and Bristol) to sing with the choir on a regular basis.
​
In addition to singing for cathedral services and concerts, the choir undertakes recordings, broadcasts and tours. Tours over the last ten years have included visits to sing at Ripon Cathedral, York Minster, Blaubeuren in Germany, Glasgow, Edinburgh, the French Loire Valley and the Italian region of Tuscany.
​
123-456-7890
Dunvant Male Choir
Cor Meibion Dyfnant / Dunvant Male Choir has the unique achievement of 125 years of unbroken history and enjoys the distinction of being the oldest in Wales with a continuous history. It was formed in January 1895 by a group of miners, steelworkers and quarrymen from the members of Ebenezer Chapel Dunvant. It is the archetypal Welsh Choir that sprung naturally out of the community and the mould of the times.
Acknowledged universally as one of our more accomplished choirs and under the musical leadership of Jonathan Rogers since 2007 the choir has sustained its tradition of musical excellence. Its achievements are well known having won all the major choral competitions open to the nation’s male choirs. The choir has performed as the sole male choir at the Royal Albert Hall, the Chapel of Kings College Cambridge, the Chapel of Harvard University, the Roy Thompson Hall in Toronto and in the ancient Cathedrals of Chichester, Exeter, Hereford and Gloucester.
123-456-7890
Brecon Singers
The Brecon Singers was founded as the Brecon Cathedral Singers in 1966 by the then Cathedral’s Director of Music, David Gedge, providing an opportunity for the people of Brecon and surrounding area to sing and perform major choral works and to augment the Cathedral’s choristers. Over these five decades, the choir has performed a broad repertoire of choral music including many of the major sacred works. Performances have taken place in Brecon, around the UK and overseas. The Brecon singers hold regular singing workshops given by their current director (Robert Evans) or with guest leaders, including John Rutter.
Looking ahead to freedom post-Covid the choir are excited by the prospect of performing live new works commissioned by Brecon Singers. The first has already been composed by Gareth Treseder to a poem especially written for us by Cyril Jones "Clywch Swm". The following years will include new works by Jonathan Willcocks and Roxanna Panufnik. These commissions are due to a generous legacy recently bequeathed to the choir by the late William Sydney Phillips, a loyal patron of Brecon Singers for many years.
We have an open door policy to new members, young and not so young, who are always welcome – there are no auditions. All we ask for is a love of singing and choral music, enthusiasm and commitment to our rehearsals and performances. We believe in high and stretching musical standards, but we also very much believe in keeping the fun in music making.
123-456-7890
