‘Art & Nibbles’ Social Night

John and Maree Renowden headed up an innovative event held on the evening of Thursday 16th November at the Mornington Community Theatre.
An admission fee entitled participants to quality finger food and drinks, and to inspect, buy or bid via silent auction on the many paintings and other art on display. Around twenty-five choristers, conducted by Jenny Stephenson and accompanied by Janice Noh, sang a bracket of four songs. A huge success that we plan to repeat next year.

Village Baxter Open Day Concert

The annual Village Baxter Open Day rolled around on Saturday 11th October, and as usual the choir sang two brackets of songs to “pay the rent” and to show residents that some of their fellow residents enjoy showing off!
It was a bit of a nervous occasion this year, since it marked the public debut of Bydd Myrdd O Ryfeddodau, a song listed for the massed choirs event at the Royal Albert Hall, London next year. Most thought it was reasonably well handled, and of course it was mixed with a considerable body of established repertoire.
The choir ran a stall, along with many others, at the Open Day, and it was well patronized.

Mission to Seafarers

We returned to the Melbourne Mission for Seamen on Wednesday 17th September. The heritage listed hall is a fairly intimate venue, and the choir itself, along with the camp followers, made a reasonable turnout.
The always unruffled Dr Janice Noh accompanied, and all present had a very enjoyable time.
Not unnaturally, the City Chapter chaps were much in evidence, and it is great to have all of us singing from the same song sheet, so to speak.

‘World in Union’ Concert  with the British & Irish Lions Rugby Choir

Onwards and upwards to the Baptist Church in Collins St Melbourne, another Gothic revival acoustic gem.
Here, on Sunday August 27th, we hosted a combined concert with the British & Irish Lions Rugby Male Choir, conducted on this tour by Ieuan Jones, who must be doing a great deal right to produce the excellent performance we were party to. Both choirs did well - we had a totally full house and they gave us two standing ovations!
The Afterglow was at the Kelvin Club. It was noisy, remarkably positive, and full of choristers who were telling us what a great tour it had been, and how good the rugby had been too. We are informed via 3AW breakfast radio that the eighty or so choristers and their support troops ran the venue out of beer! One for the books!

Last Night of the Proms

A Great Night of Entertainment for the Brits!
Legends of Brass ran its successful Last Night of the Proms Concert on Sunday afternoon 3rd August. This year they were conducted by John Grey.
The Legends were again joined by ourselves and the remarkably well-drilled pipes and drums of the PLC Pipe Band, whose leaders Ben Jones, Jeanne Bao, Emma Cutchie and Jonathan Quay have a remarkable group of young people firing on all cylinders.
We were the Welsh component of the afternoon, and we led the audience in the traditional Land of Hope and Glory and Jerusalem. Compere Robert Dugdale, urged us and the audience on. The Centre, Ivanhoe, is a magnificent Art Deco building. It looks beautiful, is acoustically very good and seats around 600. Everyone left well satisfied after this one.

Sorrento Concert

Celebrating St. John’s 150th Anniversary!

We returned to St John’s Anglican Church, Sorrento, to help them celebrate their 150th Anniversary on Sunday 6th July. The church was full, and the audience pretty enthusiastic. Like many gothic revival buildings, this one has magnificent acoustics, which make it a very enjoyable place to perform
Soloists Ruth McIntosh and Eva Butcher added to the undoubted success of this one. A pretty lavish afternoon tea didn’t hurt either.
We congratulated Damien Higgins and Evan Hardedge on surviving their first full concert as choristers. First of many we hope. 

Brick Lane Brewery Bash Sing-a-Long!

The Choir returned to the Brick Lane Brewery in Dandenong South on the first Friday in April. This is the venue where a social get together, a singalong and a flash rehearsal all come together. John Denver, Queen and Neil Diamond provided the singalong material this time, and a comfortably full venue rocked along with Tom Buchanan and Simon Stone. Good fun all round. With thanks also to Brick Lane Brewery for their generous donation of slabs of beer for our raffle.
Pretty good beer, too!

St. David’s Day Gymanfa Ganu at St. Paul’s Cathedral

March 1st is St David’s Day. It works a bit like St Patrick’s Day in that it is at least as much about nationality as it is about religion, though religious observance is important too.
The Melbourne Welsh Church has for a very long time crystalized the essence of the day in Melbourne by running the Gymanfa Ganu, a Welsh church service that comprises very little talk and a great deal of congregational singing. The local Welsh Choirs are on hand to lead the congregation, and to weigh in with a few featured hymns as well.
This year the event filled St Paul’s Cathedral. The choirs concerned were the Australian Welsh (that’s us), Melbourne Welsh and Victoria Welsh.

Tom Buchanan’s excellent Excelsis and the two ladies’ choirs, Geelong and Mornington Peninsula, were also present. 
The conductors were our own Tom Buchanan OAM, Jeanette John from Geelong, and Rushan Hewawasam from Victoria Welsh. Faleiry Koczcar OAM, Rushan's predecessor, was also present. 
It has been the custom to bring a Welsh conductor to Melbourne to lead the Gymanfa Ganu, along with Welsh Soloists. This year Siŏn Gough, Minister of the Welsh Church, and the conductors present filled the breach more than adequately. This year we were privileged to have the excellent Heulen Cynfal sing for us. She was a Blue Riband winner at the National Eisteddfod in 2023.
As is usual after the Gymanfa, many of the Choir members and quite a few of the congregants joined in an afterglow singing session at Chloe’s bar in Young and Jacksons pub.
A great celebration. We thank the Melbourne Welsh Church for all its hard work.