The Vancouver Welsh Men’s Choir is “heading west” by ferry to Vancouver Island for three concerts, including one in Courtenay, where they will also conduct a choral workshop for secondary school students.
VWMC is Vancouver’s largest and one of its most enduring amateur men’s choirs, now in its 33rd year of singing to audiences locally and worldwide. Last July it completed one of its many tours abroad with a multi concert tour through Scotland, Wales and England, culminating in London for a massed choir Welsh Choirs of the World celebration.
In 2011, it completed its first tour of northern B.C., with a week-long series of concerts from Prince Rupert through Quesnel and Prince George. Its most recent appearance on Vancouver Island was in 2011 to deliver a boisterously received Christmas concert at Charlie White Theatre in Sidney.
The choir’s repertoire maintains connections to Welsh tradition, while evolving over the years to a highly eclectic mix of Welsh, spiritual, operatic, Canadiana, and some downright silliness. Recruits from many cultures are attracted to the choir’s singing style, with currently over 19 ethnic backgrounds represented in the membership.
During the 2012 U.K. tour, it sang with some of the best Welsh male voice choirs in the world, and received accolades from their hosts for their musicality and sincerity in singing to an audience.
The choir sings May 11 at 7:30 p.m. at Mark R. Isfeld Secondary School in Courtenay, with proceeds to local charity You Are Not Alone. Tickets are available at the YANA office and Crown Isle Resort and Golf Community.
The major sponsor for this concert is Crown Isle, with added support from McQueen Construction and Canadian Western Bank.
In the afternoon before the concert, Isfeld students will be treated to a choral workshop conducted by VWMC music director Jonathan Quick. These workshops are invariably fun events and give the choir an opportunity to demonstrate the joy of choral singing and engage students in a little vocal art.
— Vancouver Welsh Men’s Choir