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Choir of the World The Pavarotti Trophy

Simply the most prestigious choir competition in the world.....last night the winning choirs from the five major choral competitions of the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod sang in the Grand Final with The Westminster Chorus , California, USA being crowned winners and the Choir of the World. The Barbershop Choir were awarded the famous Pavarotti Trophy, named for the great Italian tenor who competed on the Eisteddfod stage in 1955 when his choir from Modena won the Men's Choir competition. In 2005 Luciano Pavarotti added his name to the Choir of the World competition.

The Westminster Chorus - California - USA- Choir of the world winner - Barbershop Choir Winners

The Westminster Chorus - California - USA- Choir of the world winner - Barbershop Choir Winners

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http://www.prlog.org/10279560-chris-needs-premier-at-left-coast-eisteddfod.html

Once Upon a Time in Goginan is a lively and entertaining account of the village which lies in the hills above Aberystwyth. It includes hilarious and touching anecdotes about the unforgettable local characters, the frequenting of chapels and pubs, the development of the local football league, the effects of the war, and the Boys Own-style adventures which the author experienced during an idyllic childhood in Goginan.

Author Ceiriog Gwynne Evans says: The idea of writing a book of this sort has been gnawing at me for years. Eventually someone told me to get on with it or shut up about it!

He was inspired to write the book when, on a trip back to Goginan from his present home in Trowbridge, he stopped at Nant-yr-Arian and took in the view of the Melindr Valley. As the memories flooded back, I saw in my minds eye a vibrant rural community which lived, laboured and died in this lovely valley. I decided there and then that I would try to perpetuate the memory of these folk by gathering as much information as I could about some of the individuals who contributed to the fabric of society.

One anecdote concerns the local division of the Home Guard. I well remember the first recruitment meeting of these elderly personnel. They were a motley crew; most of them were in working clothes, cloth cap or trilby hat and overalls, carrying an interesting variety of weapons. One or two had double-barrelled shotguns but most were armed with walking sticks, umbrellas or pick axe handles; some of the agricultural fraternity came armed with hoes while the more aggressive types brought pitchforks, some still caked with manure!

The authors family played a central role in many of the villages activities. His relatives included a formidable aunt, Marie, who lived over a hundred years. What was the secret of her longevity? A bottle of whisky a week and one Guinness a day.

The author hopes that his book will encourage people from other rural communities to stir up reminiscences of their own localities and write them down before they are lost in the mists of time.

Once Upon a Time in Goginan also traces the history of the village since the time of the Celts and the Romans, examining developments in education, farming, religion and mining. The book features historical photographs of Goginan as well as the authors own illustrations.

Ceiriog Gwynne Evans was born in Goginan and educated in local schools and the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. He spent his working life teaching and lecturing in and around the London area. He retired in 1990 and moved with his American wife, Cecele, to Trowbridge in Wiltshire.

The author will be signing copies of Once Upon a Time in Goginan on 18 July between 12 and 3pm at Waterstones, 27 Great Darkgate Street, Aberystwyth.

Who is Ray Thomas, you ask? Have we no Moody Blues fans out there? I believe you might remember that he was one of the original members, and was the flutist. I believe he is of Welsh descent. He also wrote and sang, one of his more memorable tunes being about Timothy Leary, (another Celt!). Anyway he was married today in Wales, and for you Ray Thomas and/or Moody Blues fans, here is a nifty site to check out, which includes the announcement. http://moodybluesattitude.yuku.com/topic/2533

I havent been able to get on to the website for a while because I have been so busy in school. As always the summer months are a particularly busy time. I am sure it is the same in America. As teachers approach the end of the school year there is so much that needs to be done and everything else, like normal life, takes a back seat. But at last things have started to calm down and I have been able to get out into the countryside once more.My wife Liz went up to see our daughter in Chester and I travelled to the half way point to meet Laura and her family and bring her home. That half way point, right in the middle of Wales, is Llandrindod Wells.It is an unexpected place, a Victorian town that seems to erupt unexpectedly from the beautiful isolation of the green countryside around it. As the name suggests, Llandrindod is a spa town.It owes its status to the medicinal waters from a spring with the wonderful name of Ffynnon Llwynygog- which means The well in the cuckoos grove. This was a saline spring, though some of the others in Wales were, and remain, much more pungent. Many of the spas across the country provide water which is rather unpleasant and sulphurous but is widely believed on little real evidence at times to be very good for you, apparently based on the premise that the more vile it is the better. The most southerly of these at Llanwrtyd was very smelly indeed. The spring was in fact called Ffynnon Drewllyd which means stinking spring.In Wales there are a number of spas, all very close to each other at Llandrindod, Llanwrtyd, Llangammarch, Builth now all include the word Wells in their name. It is Llandrindod Wells that is the only one which is still commercially operative. You can still take the water by the glass in the Pump Room.The saline spring was in use in the 17th century. In the next century Mrs Jenkins discovered sulphur water close by and started offering cures. Some verses which appeared in The Gentlemans Magazine in 1748 started to attract interest and soon people were travelling to the developing town.The real boost to visitors however came in the 19th century, with the development of the railway. A line linking Llandrindod to South Wales was opened in 1865. So, where there were about 180 people living there in 1817 by the end of the century there were over 80,000 visitors. The town flourished and became a fully-inclusive holiday resort. There was musical entertainment from early in the morning, exercise and visits to the spa. You could even sit in radioactive mud if you wanted. All the time you were surrounded by those beautiful Victorian buildings.In those days the water was a penny a glass. However, since it was generally believed to be necessary to drink as much as a gallon a day, it was better to buy a day ticket. For a small fee you could then drink as much as you liked. Some authorities felt however that it was better to bathe in it.There were warnings though. On no account should visitors take the water in the afternoon, since it had, shall we say, a purgative effect. It was certainly more than capable of ruining your evening.What it offered was an apparently natural remedy for a whole range of complaints including skin disease, kidney trouble, rheumatism, bladder disease and gout.There was a genuine belief that taking the waters worked and I suppose in the end that is what mattered. Personally I find a glass of champagne to be far more effective in all circumstances, but perhaps I am just weird.I had a pleasant walk around the pretty town whilst I waited for Liz to arrive. It was quiet and calm. The hotel guests were sitting on the verandas enjoying the warmth and the soft evening light, as people have done since the waters became important. It seemed a very civilized sort of place. In the past it was a much racier, full of fashionable gamesters and libertines. On summer evenings like that one it was hard to imagine it was ever like that. And although its grandeur appears to be fading, I think I prefer it as it is.

Wales was one of the featured nations at this year's Smithsonian Folklife Festival held over two weeks on the National Mall in Washington D.C.I had the honor of working for the Wales Smithsonian Cymru program over the past three months and wanted to convey how much of a pleasure it has been to represent my country in this capacity and work for such a renowned institution.This was a unique opportunity to lift Wales' profile and share our wonderful culture with the people of America and the world. Wales put on a diverse program, from poetry, song and slate splitting to sustainable building, sports and animation. It proved a huge success and the level of interest was truly amazing.I also wanted to share a link to a BBC show shot at the Newseum where I had the honor of appearing on a panel with First Minister of Wales Rhodri Morgan and Gareth Howell, who works for the U.S. government in D.C.http://www.s4c.co.uk/clic/c_level2.shtml?programme_id=353172547here's a link to the Festival site:http://festival.si.edu/

What every writer dreams of, a beautiful space to write uninterrupted, and a small community of like-minded people to share ideas, inspirations, thoughts and dreams. This is what was on offer at Hawthornden Castle in Scotland, where I've just spent the past month as a Fellow. At times, I felt like I was walking around on a film set, or had woken up in inside a novel by Sir Walter Scott. Hawthornden is built on a craggy rockface above the River Esk, its foundations a web of caves once the home of Picts (and Scottish outlaw William Wallace). Walking up to the castle gates to get a mobile signal early in the morning, I met with two curious red deer and a host of birds - thrushes and goldfinches and dozens of swifts (who were nesting in the crumbled castle wall just visible from my bedroom window). The days are your own to write, read or reflect, sometimes a combination of all three.My original plan was to draft a novel set in Croatia, but that project had to be brought forward to meeting a funding deadline, so a week before I headed to Scotland I needed to think up a new plan. I'd just heard that my short story Indigo's Mermaid is to be published in a European Fiction Anthology by Dalkeys Archive Press (USA) in January 2010. A while ago, an editor of literary magazine had advised me to think about using the same story as the basis for a novel. So, I gathered together a copy of my short story, a number of my favourite notebooks (bought from a lovely bookstore in Barcelona) and headed for the hills. My writing is usually shoe-horned into spare hours and weekends away from my day job in an opera house, based in Cardiff. I travel a lot with that job, and I also have new responsibilities heading up the digital media strategy, which so far has seen me sidetracked into scripting & co-directing short films. All fine and dandy, but the novels don't get written! Here was a chance to really put myself to the test: would the short story expand into a novel? Would the characters still come to life away from their original setting and confrontation point? The chance to return day after day to one project, to test things out, re-write, re-invent was invaluable. I even wrote a (very) rough first draft. If that's inspired you in turn, and you're a published writer visit http://www.transartists.nl/air/hawthornden_castle.4272.html for details on how to apply.The castle is set in the middle of nowhere but it's still only a short bus ride away to Edinburgh. This is a city I've only ever seen in the middle of its busy, crazy arts festival in the summer. To be able to take time to explore the place without being mobbed by hundreds of anxious theatre promoters was an experience in itself. I heard Willie Doherty talk about his provocative and stunning video films at the Fruitmarket Gallery (www.fruitmarket.co.uk), drank smoothies in Hulas near Grassmarket and spent happy hours in the evocative West Port Bookshop, crammed full of second hand books balanced precariously on wobbly wooden shelves. Don't miss the Moose Head sculpture, if you get to go. And yes, we did relent and made for The Elephant House, otherwise known as the cafe where one JK Rowling wrote her first novel about boy wizard Harry Potter. It's a great cafe and not a tourist trap in spite of that pedigree. (www.elephanthouse.biz).So, what's it like returning to the real world after living like an aristocrat in a castle? Well, Dalkey's publish the mini-version of Indigo's Mermaid next year. The editor is Aleksandar Hemon, the American Bosnian writer, so it should be an interesting anthology on many levels. And today, I learnt my mother's out of the acute ward in the cardiac unit in Brighton General - and my novel set in Croatia will be published by Alcemi in October 2010! Alcemi are involved with Left Coast Eisteddfod in Portland, so you can find out more about this brilliant publishing house in Wales by popping along to one of the events scheduled for August. More details can be found on AmeriCymru's website.Hwyl!

In addition to head lining Saturday nights show at the Left Coast Eisteddfod , Chris Needs will also be introducing the premier US screening of his animated film "The Jenkins's's's's'" on Saturday afternoon during a short presentation on the forthcoming Americymru International Film Festival . "The Jenkins's's's's" won the Best Animation/CGI award at this years Swansea Bay Film Festival . For a short review of the book - "The Jenkins's's's's" see below. BUY TICKETS FOR THE LEFT COAST EISTEDDFOD FRIDAY SATURDAY ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The revealing autobiography, Like It Is, published in 2007 by Y Lolfa told of Chriss traumatic childhood, his showbiz and charity career as an accomplished pianist and vocalist, and his life more recently as an all-round celebrity. However, this book is a completely different kettle of fish. In her riotous, humour-filled diaries, Gladys tells of her struggle to keep the familys crazy, mixed-up lives together. Mams task isnt easy though. Her husband Dai is work-shy, son Philllip has a handbag, daughter Shantelll is preggers and dog Christopher or is it Christine? has had puppies. Just as well Elsie next door is accommodating she agreed to an adjoining door so they only pay one TV licence. Follow the family from their humble beginnings in the valley community of Ponty Pantin to the sun-kissed Mumbles Bay and foreign parts (including Western Super Mare). Crammed full of outrageous valleys humour, this is an ideal Christmas treat for all of Chriss fans and anyone else who needs a good laugh. The book is illustrated with eye-catching colour cartoons by Mark Davies. Chris Needs is a much loved radio presenter with a high profile thanks to his popular weeknight music and chat show on BBC Radio Wales. His cult fan club The Garden has over 40,000 members worldwide. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Read more about the Left Coast Eisteddfod HERE . Read our interview with Chris needs HERE .

Kisses in the rainSome thoughts on Welsh love, its expression in writing and song.The man who feels love cannot always express it.I am looking at a few things that have stirred the Cymric imagination and these come from Welshmen who were able to express what they felt.There is a device used in medieval Welsh poetry that is called the llatai. Here a messenger symbol is used to relay love from one person to another through imagination. These symbols may be taken from the natural world and in the craft of Dafydd ap Gwilym we find the poet using everything from a fish to a bird. In this particular quote he uses the image of the male thrush when he imagines that Morfudd, one of his loves is thinking of himPellenig, pwyll ei annwydPell ei siwrnai Ir llatai llwydYma y doeth oswydd goeth GaerAm ei erchi om eurchwaerO stranger his nature is wisdomGrey messenger a long journey has comeFrom my goldengirl at her commandFrom the rich(fine) county of Carmarthen. (my adaptation)But we need not look to structured poetry to find evidence of these messenger symbols. Its there in the folk songs tooY deryn pur ath aden lasBydd imin was dibryderO brysur! Brysia at y ferchLle rhoes im serch yn gynnarOh bird with the blue wingBe for me a lad who is carefreeO haste! hasten to the girlI gave my heart to early(my adaptation)But if the Welshman needs to express his anticipation of love there is also for him a need to express its counterpoint-the sorrow of it. Heres a short poem by John Morris Jones written between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This time it is the wind that stands as a dominant metaphor. The wind moaning stirs his recollection of lost love.Cwsg ni ddaw im hamrant henoDagrau ddaw ynghyntWrth fy ffenestr yn gwynfannusYr ochneidiar gwyntCodii lais yn awr, ac wyloBeichio wylo maeAr y gwydr yr hyrddiai ddagrauYn ei wylltaf waePam y deui, wynt , i wyloAt fy ffenestr i?Dywed im, a gollaist tithauUn ath garai di?My adaptation followsNo sleep to come to eyeline tonightOnly tears that fill togetherDoleful wind that continues without respiteAt my window moaning, soft, low, tonightNow breaks a sadder voice and weepsTears heavy with the soundOn the pane the teardrops glisten and steepIn the utter distress this sorrow keepsWhy come you then wind to moanAt my glass known but to me?Tell me did you lose too a love you'd knownWho loved you tenderly?This is rather a free rendering made so that an English Language poem emerges...And finally there is this by Mathonwy Hughes, an example of an englyn, a particular form of short Welsh Language poem whose statement is always pithy.Gwraig rinweddolEr dyfod briw y diwedd-ni roddwydDan briddell ei boneddNa, rhy annwyl ei rhinweddIw gelu byth dan glo beddEven though a wound came at the endShe was not placed under native earthNo too dear her goodnessTo ever be hidden in a locked grave (My adaptation)So then it often rains in Wales but even in those showers Welshmen over time have honed their imagination and taken things from the world around them and used them to express loves anticipation and its sorrow. All things begin and end in time, even love. Let us keep our love spoons bright then!Privilege to shareHwyl pawbOddi wrth Iain/from Iain

Alice Reed was born in Cardiff and educated at Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Glantaf. During her time there she competed in several national Eisteddfodau, winning both piano and harp solo competitions on numerous occasions, culminating in 2005 when she won the schools Blue Riband prize. Alice also played an active role in the schools musical life, as a member of the school choir and orchestra, taking part in the schools musicals and accompanying various groups and soloists.In 2005 Alice gained a place at Cambridge University to read music. Her time at Cambridge was very busy, as she became a member of the University Orchestra, and formed a flute and harp duo with her friend. Alice was also President of her colleges Music Society, a role which she enjoyed greatly. In 2006 Alice won New Hall Colleges annual music scholarship prize, which she used to fund her piano and harp lessons at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Graeme Humphrey and Skaila Kanga respectively. Alice was a member of the Universitys Welsh Society, Cymdeithas y Mabinogi, which provided her with the opportunity to meet other Welsh students in Cambridge. Alice also enjoys playing the harp at various functions from weddings to conferences and during her time at Cambridge she provided the musical entertainment at many of the Universitys prestigious May Balls.Since graduating with honours in June 2008, Alice has been working as a researcher on the popular S4C production, Dechrau Canu Dechrau Canmol an experience which she has found to be most rewarding and invigorating!