RAF Cadet Warrant Officer Kathryn Flower’s list of achievements filled a whole page in the brochure celebrating her award of Best United Kingdom RAF Air Cadet at Margam Orangery, so we were delighted to have been invited to entertain the many distinguished guests at the award ceremony.
We filled the stage in this beautiful venue, and sang a short selection of songs, with our MD D. Huw Rees and Accompanist Hywel Evans in charge. 
The 215 (City of Swansea) Squadron had also booked soprano Gwawr Edwards, and as she will be our guest artist in our Annual Concert in May, it gave us a chance to sing with her again (the last time was at the Swansea Festival of Remembrance last November).
We congratulate Kathryn for her many achievements, and thank the Squadron for their invitation to help celebrate her latest award.

The lead-up to Christmas is always a busy time for choirs, and before this concert we had entertained residents of Dan y Bryn, Pontardawe, celebrated the switching-on of Morriston’s lights, sung at Morriston Comprehensive School’s Senior Citizens Christmas party, and taken part in Morriston Tabernacle Chapel’s festival of carols with other local choirs. 
Penllergare Valley Woods Trust invited us to help raise funds for restoration of their walled garden by singing in our third Christmas Concert in the village’s St. David’s church.
With the church bursting at the seams, the Choir with soloist mezzo soprano Kate Harwood, accompanist Hywel Evans, and Deputy Musical Director Helen Wyn sang a medley of seasonal and traditional music, with the audience joining in a selection of carols. Our Bass soloist Huw Roberts joined Kate in Anfonaf Angel. 
Kate’s own programme was mainly Welsh airs, with a beautiful rendering of  Away In A Manger. She even managed to perform a duet with herself, helped by a pre-recorded track.
We were delighted to learn that the evening had raised £1,500 towards the fund, and after the concert many of us celebrated with more carols across the road in The Old Inn.
This concert seems to have become a regular village celebration of Christmas, and the 2017 date of 9th December has already been booked.
This was our last full concert of 2016, but the following day we sang carols in Morriston’s Principality Building Society to show our appreciation for their help during the year. (Thank you for the mince pies and sherry!) After this session we moved to the Wyevale Garden Centre for more singing, and were delighted that our bucket collection, helped by a generous donation from Wyevale, raised £250 for Macmillan Cancer Support, in memory of Debra, daughter of our Secretary Layton Watkins and his wife Gwen.

This concert, to raise funds for the Chapel’s building fund, brought to a close a very busy couple of months for the Choir. We regard the Chapel as our home, and rehearse there twice a week, so we were glad to be able to help raise funds for more remedial work to the fabric of the building.

The undoubted star of the show was soprano Ros Evans, who charmed us and the audience with her anecdotes and humour. It was refreshing to see a soloist who can communicate so effortlessly with her audience. Although her roots are in Swansea, Ros is now an international singer, travelling worldwide to perform.
Her programme ranged from Mozart’s Alleluia to Nella Fantasia (from Enio Morricone’s Gabriel’s Oboe), with a Karl Jenkins composition, and Cymru Bach. In Ivor Novello’s We’ll Gather Lilacs, Ros demanded (and got) full audience participation. She was accompanied by the Choir’s accompanist, Hywel Evans, who happens to be her cousin.
The Choir was conducted by D. Huw Rees as we sang a dozen songs from our repertoire, including our first public performance of Alexander’s Ragtime Band. Huw Roberts was the soloist in Anfonaf Angel.

The concert ended with Ros Evans joining us and singing the second verse of Gwahoddiad. Compere for the evening was our chorister Robert Harwood.

The Chapel’s Minister, Rev. Eirian Wyn, was unavoidably a couple of hundred miles away officiating at a wedding, so he and his wife Helen (our deputy MD) were unable to be with us.
The Choir would like to thank all those from the Chapel who were involved with organsising the concert, and also for the very convivial interval and post-concert refreshments.

The voluptously stuccoed hall in Oxford Town Hall was the venue for Oxford Welsh Male Voice Choir’s Annual Concert. It is a wonderful room, with a seating gallery, and it was almost filled to the brim.

This was a joint concert, with the combined choirs singing ten pieces together, and each one singing three on their own. The two Musical Directors each conducted one half of the concert, which involved a change of seating arrangement in each half due to the different placing of the four choir voice sections for each choir.
Fortunately, we were able to have a full rehearsal in the afternoon so that choristers could get accustomed to the other choir’s MD’s interpretation of familiar songs. This meant that, by the end of the evening, we had sung two concerts!

The choice of combined music included several Welsh favourites such as Rachie and Llanfair, and we were impressed by the command of the language by the exiles. Oxford’s MD, Helen Swift, is very expressive when she conducts, and she left us in no doubt as to what she wanted from us. Perhaps it does a choir good to be conducted by a different conductor occasionally; it certainly sharpens one’s concentration!

Our MD D. Huw Rees had chosen Unchained Melody, The Lord’s Prayer, and Anfonaf Angel for our “solo” pieces, with bass Huw Roberts singing the solo part in the latter.
Unfortunately, our accompanist Hywel Evans was unable to travel with us due to illness, but we were extremely fortunate and grateful when Helen Swift stepped into the breach at short notice.Oxford’s three pieces were the old favourite, Myfanwy, Fields of Athenry, and a very amusing version of Grandfather’s Clock which involved some audience participation. They were accompanied by Tim Croston (piano) and Andrew Patterson (organ).

We were also entertained by operatic duo Hannah Fraser-Mackenzie and Robert Jenkins. In the first half they sang classical operatic arias, and in the second their programme was based on West End and Broadway show numbers.

The concert supported Hearing Dogs for Deaf People, and we learned that it costs over £40,000 to train and maintain a dog.

We were treated to an excellent ‘afterglow’ in the Town Hall’s bar, where we were able to lubricate our hard-worked voices before heading for home (or to our hotel), having thoroughly enjoyed this collaboration. We plan to invite the Oxford Welsh Choir back to our own area in 2017, when we look forward to brief friendships being rekindled.
Thank you Oxford Welsh Male Choir for our invitation to join in your special day.