Female Voices Raised in Song
On Saturday, 7th March, Côr Persain took part in a groundbreaking event celebrating women’s choral singing across South Wales. The inaugural ‘Festival of Female Voices’ was held at the recently renovated Maesteg Town Hall, fittingly on the eve of International Women’s Day. The day provided a wonderful opportunity to come together with other choirs, to learn performance techniques in a series of workshops and to perform in the evening’s Gala Concert.
The excitement mounted as choir members boarded the bus in Ammanford on Saturday morning, ahead of them a long day of workshops, rehearsals and performance. Eleven choirs from all across South Wales took part, amounting to over 300 female voices raised in song. As festival organiser, Diane Morgan-Wright, commented, the event was created to ‘celebrate Wales’ rich female choral tradition and to shine a light on what singing together means to women across South Wales.’ Every member of Côr Persain agreed that the festival went above and beyond in fulfilling these aims. Choir chairperson Anna Yates spoke for everyone when she pronounced the event a ‘fantastic success. The organisation was second to none and the provision of a chaperone to each choir (in our case the lovely Dawn) was extremely helpful.’ Grateful thanks are also extended to choir committee member Liz Howells who worked tirelessly, organising, booking and liaising with the festival to ensure that the day ran smoothly.
During the morning, the choirs were able to work with noted professional musicians, many of whom champion Welsh choral music across the world. Rehearsals followed in the afternoon and then came the highlight of the day, the gala performance! Compered by television news journalist Rebecca John, who has strong family connections with the Maesteg area, the concert began with all of the choirs combining together to perform Greg Gilpin’s ‘Why We Sing’. Following this, each choir had the opportunity to showcase its talent and repertoire. Côr Persain delivered a toe-tapping Bonnie Tyler medley, comprising ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’, ‘It’s a Heartache’ and ‘Holding Out For A Hero’ – a performance which as greeted with great enthusiasm and huge applause by the appreciative audience. After each choir had performed, everyone joined voices once more for May Erlewine’s mesmerising ‘Never One Thing’ and a new arrangement of Carly Simon’s ‘Let The River Run’.
It was late in the evening when the choir returned to the bus for the journey home, but everyone left inspired and uplifted by this joyous celebration of women’s choral singing. The feelings of all were summed up by choir member Brenda Thomas: ‘Can we do it again next year?’