An Evening of Melody
Ammanford based ladies’ choir Côr Persain were thrilled to be invited to take part in a concert recently held to raise funds for the charity Sandville Self Help Foundation. Billed as ‘An Evening of Melody’, the event took place at Edward Albert Prince of Wales Court, Porthcawl, on January 30th and Côr Persain shared the stage with Col Canto, under the direction of Paul Greenaway, while the Porthcawl Community Strings entertained concert goers at a pre-concert reception.
Following a highly successful concert held at the venue last year and an appearance at the Porthcawl Flower Festival in June, Côr Persain were delighted to be invited back. A selection of traditional Welsh favourites such as ‘Calon Lan’ and ‘Suo Gân’ was warmly appreciated by the audience, who also joined in with the choir’s lively rendition of ‘Sosban Fach’ with gusto. The Welsh flavour of the first half was rounded off with Duffy’s crowd pleasing hit, ‘Mercy’.
Col Canto’s vocal strengths were elegantly showcased in Mozart’s ‘ Ave Verum Corpus’, Robat Arwyn’s classic ‘Anfonaf Angel’ and a lovely arrangement of the traditional hymn ‘It is Well with my Soul’, among other pieces, while their soloists shone in items such as the Loew and Lerner favourite, ‘I Could Have Danced All Night’ from the musical ‘My Fair Lady’.
After the interval, Côr Persain, under the baton of their musical director Huw Morgan and accompanied on the piano by Dr Catherine Morgan, performed a lively Bonnie Tyler medley which had the audience tapping their toes and singing along again, before rounding off their set with ‘Anthem’ and ‘I Know Him So Well’ from the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical ‘Chess’. For the finale, the two choirs combined their voices for the soaring harmonies of ‘Cymru Fach’, which was received with thunderous applause .
Sandville Self Help Foundation’s Sarah Morgan explained a little of the invaluable work carried out by the charity, which is dedicated to supporting people with life limiting and life changing conditions. In her closing remarks she thanked both choirs and the string ensemble for taking part and outlined some of the activities and therapies the Foundation provides. The evening concluded with everyone joining together to sing the national anthem.
Côr Persain’s chairperson, Anna Yates summed up the feelings of everyone in the choir: ‘It was a privilege to take part in this concert, held to support such a worthy cause. The atmosphere was so friendly and welcoming. Many of us were approached afterwards by audience members who wanted to thank us for coming. Several commented that we looked as if we were having fun up on stage and this, of course, is true. We all enjoy being part of the choir tremendously!’
The choir holds weekly rehearsals at Ammanford Miners’ Theatre, every Tuesday from 7pm to 9pm. Anyone interested in coming along is very welcome to attend and take part in a ‘taster session’. There are no auditions and there’s no re quirement to read music – just bring your love of singing and be prepared to enjoy!