Blogs

AmeriCymru: Hi Stella and many thanks for agreeing to this interview. What inspired you to write about Robert Jermain Thomas ? Care to introduce him for our readers?

Stella: Sometimes we can live so close to great history and yet not see or appreciate the many hidden places or individuals that could enrich our lives.

So it was when I first learned of Robert Jermain Thomas. I had previously lived a few miles down the road from Llanover, Monmouthshire, the home of the missionary, Robert Jermain Thomas and yet it was not until I moved thousands of miles from my homeland, teaching at Gordon College, Massachusetts, that I first learned of the significance of this man to the Korean peninsula.

Little was known of him in Wales, but he is a household name for many in Korea. Chosen for Choson, is the first book about Robert Jermain Thomas written in English. His family were Welsh speaking, and lived next door to the famous Lady Llanover who encouraged everything Welsh. Currently, Chosen for Choson is available in English and Chinese and next year it will be available in Korean. Wouldn’t it be lovely if someone could translate this into Welsh!

The one that inspired me most must be Dr.Samuel Hugh Moffett whom I met at Princeton Seminary, who, by the way, celebrates in 99th birthday this year. Sam told me that a man like Thomas was “worthy of growing into a legend” because he had such a “dramatic” and “intense” commitment to spread the Gospel of Christ which eventually led to his martyrdom in Korea. Sam’s father, Samuel Austin Moffett, had served in Korea from 1890, through Pyongyang’s Revival in 1907, and stayed during the Japanese annexation in 1910 until he was forced to leave in 1935.

AmeriCymru: What can you tell us about the  General Sherman Incident in which Robert Thomas became entangled?

Stella: Mystery surrounded the General Sherman, the boat on which Thomas traveled on his second missionary journey into Korea. Thomas even refused to tell his friend its name. Some believe it was a spy ship; others, a merchant ship, or even a raider of tombs. As they traveled up the coast, they received many official warnings to turn back. However, they adamantly and arrogantly continued their course, intruding a country which was hostile to the outside world.

It is not surprising then, that on September 3, 1866, the command to destroy The Sherman was issued. Despite the inequality between the strength of The Sherman and the local boats, the Koreans were victorious. They floated several burning boats (turtle boats or scows) loaded with brush sprinkled with sulfur toward the schooner, setting it into flame. The captain and crew plunged into the sea and waiting for them on the shore were their executioners. Sadly, there were no survivors.

It was exciting to hear Sam tell me that he knew of eye witnesses of the account. He says, ‘My father came to Pyongyang less than 24 years after the General Sherman disaster. One of his helpers, reverend Hansok-jin, met eye witnesses of the attack on the Sherman. They had seen a white man in the smoke on the burning deck, shouting “Jesus” and throwing books to the people lining the shore. Some of the crowd were brave enough to take the books, one pasting the bible on the walls of his home. Later, this home became a thriving church.

AmeriCymru: How is Thomas remembered in Korea today?

Stella: For thousands of Korean Christians, Thomas is remembered as one who brought Christianity to Korea. He is greatly revered. Recently a chapel built on the grounds of Wales Evangical School of Theology, Bridgend, has been named after him. At Sarang Church in Korea, you will see a Welsh church built in the center of their buildings. Koreans In their hundreds visit the historical places in Wales attached to the memory of Thomas. Recently I was able to help John Gower on S4C television with details of the journey of Thomas. The story of Thomas continues to intrigue us.

AmeriCymru: You currently live in Wales but you lived for many years in Canada and then Massachusetts. Care to tell us a little about your time in Canada and the US?

Stella: My husband and I left Wales with three children and lived in Nova Scotia for several years; later we moved to Masachusetts. My husband was a doctor in Yarmouth, NS, and in Hamilton and Essex, MA. I taught at Gordon College, Wenham, Massachusetts. All our children studied in the USA.

AmeriCymru: What's next for Stella Price?

Stella: My biographies, Chosen for Choson and God’s Collaborator have kept me busy for a while. I am currently writing a novel based on a story line that begins in Nova Scotia and ends in post WWII London, UK with many cross-cultural dilemmas. It’s going to take a while, however. Researching this era is fascinating.

AmeriCymru: Any final message for the readers and members of AmeriCymru?

Stella: My book, “Chosen for Choson,” introduces you to the lives of Robert Jermain Thomas and Caroline Godfrey, two young people who were adventurous and brave. Their lives ended tragically, yet their story still reverberates throughout Wales, China, and Korea. My second book, “God’s Collaborator,” tells the story of a man who was imprisoned in North Korea, yet lives to tell the story, and whose life did not end tragically, but who has now founded a university in Pyongyang, North Korea, on the very site where the Memorial Church, dedicated to the life of Thomas, was destroyed. Stories really never end. They simply continue throughout the generations. I hope you enjoy these books.

BUY 'TIMELESS' HERE

AmeriCymru: How would you describe your new book 'The Timeless Cavern'?

John: It is a historical, fantasy, time travel treat. A cave in Mid Wales where no time passes is the base for Marged Evans and her friends. She works out how to re-calibrate the time stones so that she can help people out who have been trapped in the cave, some of them for hundreds of years.

The idea is to get young people and others interested in historical events, local, national and international via fun, time travel, fantasy.

AmeriCymru: Do you plan a sequel and if so when can we expect publication?

John: The Timeless Cavern series will be on going. The second book Marged Evans and the Pebbles of MORE time is finished and will be out by the middle of this year. The third book is a third complete and should be finished by the end of the year. The fourth and fifth books are in the planning stages.

AmeriCymru: You currently live in Minnesota but you are from Mid Wales originally. Care to tell us a little about your Welsh background?

John: I was raised on a hill farm in Mid Wales and lived there until 1976 when I came to the US and attended University. While in Wales I was active in Young Farmers and Wildlife organisations.

AmeriCymru: What can you tell us about your one man show “John Dingley and the Biggest Pack of Lies You Ever heard”?

John: It is a collection of stories most of which are based in actual happenings that showed up in my life over the years. Many of them will show up in another book which will also be published soon. (See below)

AmeriCymru: What's next for John Dingley?

John: Another book coming out called "A visit Home" a collection of short stories and a few poems. Also another book which is finished, however still needs work. A non fiction. "Hard Work in Paradise  When all our food and lives were organic"

AmeriCymru: Any final message for the members and readers of AmeriCymru?

John: Keep supporting the world of Welsh Writers. We all need your support. Read voraciously and have fun.

An Interview with author Charles Parry

"Owain Glyn Dwr (Shakespeare's Owen Glendower) is one of the most iconic characters in all of Welsh history. Descended from native princely stock, when an increasingly intolerable English hegemony coincided with the advent of an unpopular English king, he was the natural choice of many of his nation to lead them out of oppressive English rule. Such a leader had been foreseen by Welsh prophets for centuries as Y Mab Darogan or The Son of Prophecy."

Buy the book here:- The Last Mab Darogan

.

---

Charles:   Thanks for inviting me to discuss the book and Glyn Dŵr. It's always a pleasure for me to do so but especially so for Americymru because I know that many of your members have a love of Welsh history and so will have at least some awareness of the Glyn Dŵr legend.

It's hard to say exactly when I became interested in him as he seeped into my soul from a young age. I was born not far from where he had lived so he’d be mentioned occasionally at school and, of course, there were hotels, streets and even railway locomotives named after him. Sometimes on days out with my family to Rhuddlan, Conway and Caernarfon castles his attacks on them were mentioned by guides – not always in complimentary terms! I remember Welsh nationalists invoking his name: I suppose it lent their campaigns a militant, anti-English air. A little later there was even a nationalist group calling themselves Y Meibion Glyn Dŵr who took to attacking English interests in Wales – mostly setting fire to holiday homes. So Glyn Dŵr wasn’t exactly seen in a good light by everyone! I have to admit that I forgot about him for a while whilst I pursued my university studies.

AmeriCymru:  Many books have been written about Owain: novels, scholarly accounts etc. How does your book differ from the rest? What approach did you adopt in tackling his story?

Charles:  The first book I read that seriously addressed Glyn Dŵr as an historical subject was Rees Davies’s excellent ‘The Age of Conquest’, which I read in the early 90’s. In that was a whole chapter on Owain’s revolt. It was the first balanced account that I’d read and one that saw him in a relatively positive light when shown against the oppression that the Welsh were suffering at the time. Professor Davies went on to write his classic ‘The Revolt of Owain Glyn Dŵr’, which I read in about 1996 and I was completely entranced once again by this amazing Welsh hero. I then read dozens of other books and articles – some good, some bad – about Glyn Dŵr before deciding I should write my own.

Firstly, I wanted to write a book about him that placed his story in a wider context than all the other books I’d read. I wanted it to include, for example: how the tumultuous events in England influenced the revolt; how the situation in France affected its cause, progress and demise; how the schism in the church at the time colored it; how the Scots helped (or hindered) their Celtic cousins’ bid for freedom. It’s why the book is subtitled ‘The Life and Times of Owain Glyn Dŵr’. Secondly, I wanted it to read chronologically, rather than have chapters dedicated to particular aspects, so that the story of Glyn Dŵr unfolds in a continuous stream that takes the reader on a journey through the timeline of his revolt. Finally, I wanted it to be historically accurate and include new research that had come to light since Professor Rees’s book. Many books and articles on Glyn Dŵr unfortunately peddle myths about him and his revolt: anything written in my book as a fact is backed up with a reference supporting it. The hardback book has over a thousand footnotes and several appendices for the keener reader to explore some relevant aspects of the time in more detail, like castle warfare, arms and armor, and the anti-Welsh statutes – some of which were still in the statute books in Victorian times! It also has over 80 illustrations, including maps, almost all of which are in color. It makes for a large book (although the ebook is shorter) but to me its level of detail is a bonus. There are shorter books on Glyn Dŵr but they don’t give the whole picture and frankly many of them are under-researched and rely on hearsay.

---

Monument to Owain Glyndwr's Victory at Hyddgen

---

AmeriCymru:  How important a figure is Owain Glyn Dŵr in the history of Wales?

Charles:  Glyn Dŵr is an immensely important figure in the history of Wales. The revolt he led was a watershed in Welsh history. It so devastated Wales that no serious attempt to throw off the ‘Saxon Yoke’ by violent means was ever again attempted. After it many Welsh adopted English customs at home, worked in administering the country for the English, sought their fortunes in England or went fighting for the English abroad. Even the architecture of Wales, its vernacular at least, can be considered pre- and post- Glyn Dŵr as so much of it was destroyed or damaged beyond repair in the revolt – by both sides it has to be said. For much of the time after the revolt he became a symbol of the unruly Welshman: despised by the English and quietly revered by the Welsh. Since Victorian times he has become a lot more rounded as an historical figure – even the English have come to appreciate his finer qualities. I have heard people, especially Welsh people, say that Nye Bevan or Lloyd George was the greatest Welshman ever but they do not come close to having the same effect on Wales as did Glyn Dŵr: their achievements were great but they only marginally impacted on Wales; Glyn Dŵr was a Welsh leader of Welsh people in Wales and at that he was one of the greatest if not THE greatest.

AmeriCymru:  Owain is famous for disappearing from history around 1410. What do you think became of him in his later years?

Charles:  The greatest Glyn Dŵr conundrum is what happened to him when, as the bards said, he disappeared. After Harlech fell to Prince Hal, I believe he lived in or around his old patrimonial lands in Powys Fadog and Edeirnion where his retinue would have been most loyal. Living with one or more of his daughters on the English borders, as later local legends suggest, would have been too risky even if he were cunningly disguised as a friar or a shepherd. An interesting story in Welsh I unearthed suggested that he sailed to France to persuade Charles VI to give him some more support and died on the way but there is no other evidence for that. He most probably died around 20th September 1415. No one knows where he died or was buried but if I had to guess I would say that he died near Glyndyfrdwy and was buried in sacred ground somewhere not too far away.

AmeriCymru:   What's next for Charles Parry?

Charles:  I have been researching a book on John Oldcastle who as Lord Cobham became one of the first Lollard martyrs. I came across him whilst researching my book on Glyn Dŵr as he has strong ties with Wales and fought with Prince Hal. I hope to complete it this year and with luck have it published in 2016. I am also researching the death of my younger brother Ian in the 1989 Romanian revolution. As a recent S4C documentary ‘Pwy Laddodd Ian Parry?’ has discovered, it looks like it wasn’t the accident it was made out to be at the time. There might be some further developments in that this year too.

AmeriCymru:  Any final message for the readers and members of AmeriCymru?

Charles:   AmeriCymru is a great forum for Welsh culture and history. It’s 600 years this year since the death of Owain so I hope that AmeriCymru members commemorate him and the anniversary of his death in some small way, if only by thinking of his legacy and his contributions to Wales. Keep up the good works! Blwyddyn newydd dda i bawb.

Robert was born in Luton, Bedfordshire in 1939. He attended Luton Grammar School where he did Spanish, French, English and Latin, winning the A level Latin prize whilst in Lower Sixth. He studied Spanish, French, Latin and Moral Philosophy at St. Andrews, specialising in Spanish and French and graduating in 1964. He completed a Dip Ed at Makerere, Uganda, in 1965.

He was awarded a PhD on the French and Spanish poetry of Juan Larrea at the University of London under the supervision of Ian Gibson in 1975. Thesis title:  The Poetry of Juan Larrea , described as outstanding (“sobresaliente”) by the external examiner, Professor Arthur Terry, the Catalán poetry specialist.

He writes in English and Spanish. Read more here

ROBERT GURNEY ON THE WELSH AMERICAN BOOKSTORE

 

AmeriCymru: What can you tell us about your latest collection Dylan's Gower?

Robert: Hi Ceri. On the back cover of Dylan’s Gower, the publisher, Chris Jones of Cambria Books, has written:

“In this tribute to Dylan, his [Dylan’s] life on the Gower Peninsula in Wales is imagined poetically in the movement of a wave, the build-up, the swell, the rise, the disintegration, the spindrift, the crashing down. Then the relief, the calm before the next wave begins to form. Poems that start with poetic intensity, move towards those that have a painful or nightmarish quality and end with poems that have a lighter touch.”

I felt that the influence of the Gower peninsula in Dylan’s formation was being underplayed of late and sent this note in the South Wales Evening Post. It forms the Introduction to Dylan’s Gower:

“Talking to Dylan Thomas’s lovely granddaughter, Hannah Ellis, and to the inspiring Olivier Award-winning actor Guy Masterson last night at the RSA in John Street, London, on the occasion of their brilliant British Council seminar “Dylan Thomas: A Life in Words”, I was particularly struck by Hannah’s reference to Dylan’s notebooks which he wrote between the ages of fifteen (possibly earlier) and twenty. She mentioned how these had been lying mouldering in a box in Boulder, America, but are now available to the public in Swansea. Hannah argued that everything was there, in embryo, in those notebooks, that that period of poetic creativity, those five or more years of “cosseted” (Hannah’s word) creative activity, a veritable explosion that occurred within the young genius relieved to drop out early, at sixteen, from a school in which he was bored, were the foundations of his work to come. Dylan lived in Swansea, on the edge of Gower, during those years.

Hannah referred to a text in which he wrote that he “often” went down to Gower. The gist of this book, Dylan’s Gower, is that it is clearly time to re-evaluate the influence of the spectacular and quirky Gower Peninsula on his work. Hannah maintained that Newquay and Laugharne were key periods in the gestation of Under Milk Wood. I agreed but argued that to them must be added the beautiful bays and villages of his early ‘backyard’, the place to which he would escape during his formative years and to which he was tempted to ‘retire’ in the final year of his life. This book points, perhaps, to the need to re-evaluate the role Gower played in the formation of the creatures of the mysterious entity of Dylan’s literary imagination.”

The above was published on 25 October 2014. In Dylan’s Gower I explore a little possible links Dylan’s imagination had with the peninsula.

AmeriCymru: This is your second anthology on the theme of Dylan Thomas in this centenary year. How important a figure is Dylan in the history of Welsh literature?

Robert: I am not really the best person to judge this. My wife went to a grammar school near Swansea and told me that nobody mentioned Dylan at all when she was there. He wrote only in English, as you know. Personally I feel he is tremendously important for Welsh literature but it depends how you define the latter. Some say he was too “English” for the Welsh. I am not an expert on Dylan’s poetry although I read any book on him that I can lay my hands on.

I am simply somebody who has been inspired, gratefully,

by his work, by its music, its sound and by his voice.

AmeriCymru: What particular personal memories inspired these tributes?

Robert: The memories are numerous. Mark Rees of The Evening Post interviewed me this summer.

The interview was posted on September 14. (See http://verpress.com/to-dylan-2014/ ). The unabridged version can be read on http://verpress.com/dylans-gower-2014/ .

My memories of the area where Dylan grew up begin at an early age, while I was still at Primary/Junior School. I had an aunt and uncle in Baglan. My cousin, their daughter, to who I am close, lives in Mumbles.

I cycled around Mumbles and Gower on old broken down bike with no brakes when I was a child. Over the years my wife and I have spent a huge amount of time down there visiting her parents, sadly no longer with us, in Port Eynon. It’s a very special place to us, as it was to Dylan. My younger son, William, who did the covers for the two Dylan books, was born in Morriston Hospital, near Swansea.

My sons, James and William love being there, as do their sons Alban (3), Matthew (2) and Dylan (10 months).

AmeriCymru: In 2004 you set up an independent press. What can you tell us about this venture? What does the future hold for Verulamium Press?

Robert: I launched Verulamium Press in 2004 because local publishers were not interested in publishing poetry and national publishers were not interested in publishing local poetry (as if poetry is not rooted in an area!).

I began by publishing my translation of El río y otros poemas, The River and Other Poems, by the Patagonian poet Andrés Bohoslavsky and some my own poems of childhood - in Luton Poems. In all honesty the press has not been very active. I published with Verulamium Press this year a collection of approaching 200 short stories (many of them micro-stories) called A Night in Buganda. Tales from Post-Colonial Africa about my experiences on an aid program in Uganda in the sixties. The background is the collapse of democracy and the rise of Idi Amin. The thing is that once I had published my poetry on my own press, publishers in other countries, namely Argentina, Mexico and Spain, began to contact me. I write in Spanish and English.

Lord Byron Ediciones in Madrid is my main publisher outside the UK. (Go to the Home page on http://verpress.com for the list of my published work. Its future? Well, it’s there and it can be used again. At present my publisher is Cambria Books, in Wales.

AmeriCymru: Where can people find out more about your work online?

Robert: From my website: verpress.com .

As you know, I write a great deal in Spanish. My first Spanish teacher in the UK was Señor Enyr Jones (‘Jonah)’) from Gaiman in Patagonia. I owe him a great deal.

I was in Argentina in 1972 working with the exiled Spanish poet, Juan Larrea, at his home in Córdoba and at his Center for Research on César Vallejo (Peru).

I use quite a lot of Spanish and Latin American digital publications, such as Analía Pascaner’s Con Voz Propia –Revista Literaria (Argentina).

Analía and her husband Jorge came over to the UK last year and we met up. If you scroll down the right hand side of http://convozpropiaenlared.blogspot.co.uk to the list of poets she has published, you will see my contributions under Robert Gurney. My work featured in Ketty Lis’s poeticas.com.ar website in which I found myself next to the giant Dylan Thomas (in Spanish), in the UK section, but sadly that site, that was supported by major international institutions and Oxford University, seems to have been taken down. I publish short stories with Benma in Mexico City.

AmeriCymru: What are you working on at the moment?

Robert: At the moment I am writing a Spanish edition of my poems dedicated to Dylan. The provisional title is Para Dylan (For Dylan). I have been approached about it by more than one publisher. I also plan to publish Juan Larrea’s letters to me and a dual language book of short stories, in Spanish and English, called The Seven Deadly Sins. These have been appearing in anthologies launched by Benma.

AmeriCymru: Any final message for the members and readers of AmeriCymru?

Robert: Just that I am delighted to have found AmeriCymru. I have only just found it and am still exploring it. It looks great and I am hoping I’ll be able to make a contribution to it and I look forward to making contact with fellow poets and story writers through its pages.

My antepenultimate book this year, the one about Uganda and East Africa, reflected an American-British shared experience that I treasure a great deal . There is an openess about America that you don’t always find here, sadly. I am still in near daily contact with colleagues in America from that group, TEA, Teachers for East Africa. They helped me with A Night in Buganda. (The ‘Night’, by the way, is the encroaching night of Amin.)

Robert Edward Gurney

St Albans, UK

Click the image above or here for Amazon listings.

AmeriCymru: Hi Stephen and many thanks for agreeing to this interview. What was the first thing you wrote and what attracted you to crime fiction writing?

Stephen: My first thing attempt at writing seriously was a general fiction novel. And my second novel was a political thriller based in London and Wales in the pre-devolution era. Luckily neither ever generated any interest from agents or publishers.

AmeriCymru: We recently featured  Brass In Pocket on the Welsh American Bookstore. What can you tell us about the book?

Stephen: The book is the first in a series of police procedural/crime/ mystery novels featuring Inspector Ian Drake of the Wales Police Service. It is set in north Wales and assumes that policing powers have been devolved to Cardiff and that the police forces of Wales have all been unified into one. The second Worse Than Dead and the third Against The Tide have also been published.

AmeriCymru: Care to introduce your character, Inspector Drake, to our readers?

Stephen: Ian Drake is a detective inspector in the police. He was born and brought up in north Wales [near Caernarfon]. He comes from a rural background – his father and grandfather both ran small holdings. He suffers from OCD, feels guilty about the time he spends away from his family and resents the demands on his time. His wife is a doctor and he has two daughters. Drake can be dour, rude and often a misery but he gets the job done.

AmeriCymru: Can you take a moment to tell us all about the first of your Inspector Drake novels, Brass in Pocket.

Stephen: Brass in Pocket is the first inspector Drake novel and is in the tradition of British detective writing. The book is written in the third person so there are multiple points of view the principal character is Ian Drake. He is a nuanced character, facing challenges in his personal and professional life from his OCD. After the murder of two police officers on an isolated mountain pass the killer starts sending Drake messages in the form of lyrics from famous rock songs. Drake has to face the challenges of a high-profile enquiry as well as the investigation touching his life personally.

AmeriCymru: What can you tell us about Inspector Marco?

Stephen: John Marco is from Aberdare. His father is from an Italian family and his mother is from Lucca, near Florence. He is single although he has a son from a past relationship. He has a rebellious streak but he has a sense of humour.

AmeriCymru: What can you tell us about  Speechless the first Inspector Marco novel?

Stephen: Speechless was inspired by reading a report about human trafficking to South Wales. And also it is about how the open borders of Europe have attracted thousands of people from Poland and other countries to work in the cities of the United Kingdom. John Marco comes from an interesting background himself which is threaded throughout the plot. It is written in the first person and is more fast-paced and grittier than the Inspector Drake novels.

AmeriCymru: What advice would you give to aspiring writers?

Stephen: Keep on writing- join a group and get your work critiqued. And don’t be afraid of someone telling you how to improve. Perhaps consider going on a short course and above all read and read in your genre.

AmeriCymru: Who are your favorite crime writers?

Stephen: Ian Rankin and Val McDermid must be near the top of the list. As well as Harlan Coben, Raymond Chandler and Karin Slaughter. But there are so many great crime/mystery writers. And then of course the Scandi Noir authors too – Mankell, Nesbo.

AmeriCymru: Favorite TV crime series?

Stephen: This could be another long list. There’s a series on BBC at the moment called The Missing where the acting is exceptional and the script profoundly good. Hinterland from Wales was superb too – on Netflix in the US soon I understand. But then The Sopranos and The Killing must be high on my favourite list.

AmeriCymru: Where can our members and readers find details of your books?

Stephen: I have a website – www.stephenpuleston.co.uk and all the novels are available as e-books on Amazon.

AmeriCymru: What's next for Stephen Puleston? When can we expect your next book?

Stephen: The second Marco novel – A Good Killing has a target publication date of 8th May and the third Somebody Told Me of the 8th September. After that I hope to get an extended Drake short story finished before a full novel by the end of 2015 beginning of 2016.

AmeriCymru: Any final message for the members and readers of AmeriCymru?

Stephen: There are so few Welsh crime writers I hope that in the future crime writing from Wales - Dragon Noir maybe? - can be as successful as Tartan Noir is in Scotland.

A Christmas in Wales - ( click to download the flier )

---

7 - 8:30 pm, Dec 20, 2014
Kenilworth Presbyterian Church, 4028 SE 34th Ave at Gladstone St in Portland 

The Festival Chorus of the Welsh Society of Portland present their annual Christmas Concert “A Christmas in Wales” featuring traditional Welsh carols, songs, and other seasonal music. Featured special guests include the Celtic Fusion band Beltaine , harpist Tracey Rose Brown , as well as chorus member soloists and chamber ensembles. A sing- along of popular carols (including a “Deck the Halls” like you’ve never heard it before!) will round out the program.

The Festival Chorus draws on the rich traditions of choral singing in Wales, long known as “the land of song.” They sing in both Welsh and English and were originally founded to perform at the annual hymn-singing festival (or Gymanfa Ganu as it’s known in Welsh)  held at Bryn Seion Welsh Church. The Chorus now performs at events year ‘round. They are led by Dr. Jamie Lynn Webster, who also directs the Chautauqua Community Chorus and the Portland Revel’s ViVoce Ensemble.

Beltaine is the Northwest's premier Celtic Fusion band featuring hammered dulcimer, guitar, accordion, and marimbula. They offer a unique blend of musical styles inspired from Celtic, folk, rock, classical, jazz, and blues sources.

Wales has a rich and vibrant history going back to the pre-Roman Celts. The Welsh Society of Portland celebrates and perpetuates Welsh heritage, culture and music in Oregon. The WSOP is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.   

---

CONCERT - MORE DETAILS/DOWNLOAD THE FLIER HERE

---

.....