AmeriCymru spoke to Lyn Anthony, Secretary of the Pontarddulais Male Voice Choir about their forthcoming visit to Toronto to perform at the North American Festival Of Wales .

AmeriCymru: Many thanks for agreeing to be interviewed by AmeriCymru. The Choir will be performing at the 2013 North American Festival of Wales in Toronto, Canada. Can you tell us how this came about? Have you performed in Canada before?

Lyn: The invite to perform at the N orth American Festival of Wales (NAFOW) came directly from their president Mr Hywel Davies who now resides in America. Hywel is a descendant of our area and actually was a member of our choir many years ago. He actually assisted in organising our last tour to the USA when we visited Washington DC.

We were honoured to have been asked to perform at this prestigious event and gladly accepted the invite.

Our Musical Director Clive Phillips will also be conducting the Gymanfa (Music Festival) on the Sunday .

We have visited Canada previously on tours the last being in 1996 when we toured British Columbia from Calgary to Vancouver. Previous visits to Toronto and Ontario were in 1973 and 1977. No doubt we will see a big difference in the cities from that time.

AmeriCymru: When was the choir founded? Can you tell us something about its history?

Lyn: In 1960, under the leadership of the late Noel Davies M.B.E. the Pontarddulais Youth Choir had been successfully competing in youth Eisteddfodau. Suddenly they were too old for the youth competitions! The desire of the young men to continue as a choir was strong and so the Pontarddulais Male Choir was born.

At that time, as to this day, there were several established and distinguished choirs in a relatively small area.

The decision to step into the hotbed of male choral singing was therefore a momentous and courageous decision.

The Choir was formed in 1960 under the late Noel Davies MBE, who remained its conductor until 2002 when the now conductor Mr Clive Phillips took over. Clive had been the choirs accompanist for twelve years previously.

During this time the choir has asserted itself as a most credited ambassador of Welsh male voice singing. The choir has achieved prominence through a record fifteen first place at the Royal National Eisteddfod of Wales and two first places at the Llangollen International Eisteddfod. In 2004 the choir achieved the double by winning the male choir competition at both Llangollen and the Newport National Eisteddfod. At Newport the choir were awarded the prestigious title Choir of the Festival and in the adjudication Brian Hughes (Adjudicator) said,

Their mastery of choral technique is sure and their imagination at all ti mes on fire. This is the best singing of male choirs I have heard for many years.

At Cardiff National Eisteddfod 2008 they achieved their fifteenth win. This was the fourteenth successive win for the choir.

Whilst the number of Choristers has fluctuated over the years we have always maintained a number in excess of 100. On this particular tour the choir will be nearly 60 in number as unfortunately due to the timing it was difficult for several members to be able to travel with us.

AmeriCymru: Where in Wales is Pontarddulais? Would you describe the area a little for our American and Canadian readers

Lyn: Pontarddulais is located on the Mid South Coast of Wales 9 miles West of Swansea6 miles north east of Llanelli just to the North of the Famous beautiful Gower peninsula and Coast.

The name Pontarddulais translates as the Bridge on the Black river. Presumably this came about during the early days when coal mining and tinplate works were the main industries of the area and the river often ran black in colour from the mines high on the mountains above the village.

Nowadays there are no more working coal mines and coal tips but beautiful green mountains and each of the 6 Tinplate works which in their early days between 1872 and 1910 were some of the main tinplate providers to several parts of the world.

This period saw the transformation in population for the Town which grew from 1200 to 10,000 .

Later the opening of two large Modern tinplate factories outside of the area at Trostre and Felindre forced the eventual closure of all the tinplate works where mostly modern housing estates now occupy the sites.

The current population is approximately 16,000 with main employment being outside of the Town boundaries.

There is a very strong community spirit in the Town with music very high on the agenda.

Apart from the Pontarddulais Male Choir there are several other choirs and a Town Band all of whom have achieved their own distinctions in the music world. Sport is also very popular with thriving Rugby teams, Football and Cricket teams.

The Tenor Dennis ONeil was born and raised in the Town, the choir recently performed at his 60 ^th Birthday party Concert with Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and a host of other famous singers.

Welsh is widely spoken with a very popular Welsh Primary school and local Comprehensive schools (High Schools) who teach through the medium of Welsh.

The first Welsh dictionary was published by John Walters (17211797) He was a Welsh cleric from Llanedi a village overlooking Pontarddulais. He was a noted lexicographer , publishing An EnglishWelsh Dictionary in fifteen parts (1770 to 1794).

There are websites with photographic collections of the town. http://www.geograph.org.uk/search.php?i=2733641

AmeriCymru: The choir has a particularly distinguished record at the National Eisteddfod. Care to tell us more?

Lyn: The choir a re by no doubt the most successful competitive Male choir in Wales with a record 15 wins at the National Eisteddfod the last 14 being successive.

They have also won twice at the prestigious Llangollen International Eisteddfod.

The Choir have always supported the Eisteddfodau in Wales which is a fantastic Music Festival our website will provide the full list of or winnings on which our reputation has been based and although it is a demanding schedule to prepare the choir for competition we have always risen to the challenge and hope to compete again in the near future.

In the world of Male choir its like going to the National football finals and singing at your very best. As Noel Davies would say and we maintain that ethos Its not Good unless its perfect

AmeriCymru: What is your repertoire? Is there a particular piece that you all enjoy performing more than others? Do you have a signature piece or one that's more often requested by audiences?

Lyn: I suppose our Repertoire encompasses Welsh folk songs, traditional hym n tunes, operatic choruses, Negro spirituals, light music from the shows as well as unaccompanied songs.

I dont think we have a particular signature piece I suppose a lot depends on the venue of our performance and the type of audience before us where we can adjust quite quickly.

One of the most requested songs probably is the Welsh Folk Love Song Myfanwy particularly Welsh Patriots living abroad.

The Lyrics of Myfanwy

Paham mae dicter, O Myfanwy,
Yn llenwi'th lygaid duon di?
A'th ruddiau tirion, O Myfanwy,
Heb wrido wrth fy ngweled i?
Pa le mae'r wn oedd ar dy wefus
Fu'n cynnau 'nghariad ffyddlon ffl?
Pa le mae sain dy eiriau melys,
Fu'n denu'n nghalon ar dy l?

Myfanwy boed yr holl o'th fywyd
Dan heulwen ddisglair canol dydd.
A boed i rosyn gwridog iechyd
I ddawnsio ganmlwydd ar dy rudd.
Anghofia'r oll o'th addewidion
A wnest i rywun, 'ngeneth ddel,
A dyro'th law, Myfanwy dirion
I ddim ond dweud y gair "Ffarwl".

I cant promise this will be sung during our concert

AmeriCymru: What is a typical year's tour schedule for your choir? What kind of events do you typically perform at?

Lyn: On average the choir will perform at about 12 concerts per year. The venues can vary from Large Cathedrals such as Lincoln to small Church or village halls to large concert halls of over 1000 capacity.

We have performed outside but unfortunately the British (Particularly Welsh weather Climate) often plays a part and performances are cancelled.

As a rule we normally only perform at venues where there is a particular fundraising event taking place, over the years I have no doubt we have helped raise hundreds of thousands of pounds possibly Millions for various charitable organisations. This we are very proud of. We only seek to recover our expenses and not make large profits on performances.

All Travel depends on engagements accepted as you will see from our website we have travelled extensively oversees but as the choir generally gets older and costs spiral these have been curtailed of late but we often travel long distances and stay overnight which is a good social side of the choir.

AmeriCymru: How often do you rehearse? Could you describe a typical rehearsal session for our readers?

Lyn: The choir always rehears twice weekly on Monday and Wednesday evenings from 7pm till 9pm. We average about 80-90 choristers at each rehearsal.

During rehearsal we will perform songs that are in our repertoire to keep on top of them and learn new music. We learn by Sol-fa thats the old d r m f s l t d for the none music readers.

I think Julie Andrews stole this from Male Choirs when they filmed the sound of music and made a song of it !!

Once we perfect the music we then add the lyrics. This is an excellent way of learning for someone who doesnt read music.

A lot of people say thats an old fashioned way of learning, but then we say Well thats how we win competitions !

AmeriCymru: You have recorded a great many albums over the years. What so far has been the highlight/s of your recording career?

Lyn: the years we have recorded many albums and these have been very successful, We have performed many times on Television and Radio including recently the BBC 2 World Armistice Day Service where we sang live on BBC Radio 2 to the World from our own St Michaels Church where the service was conducted.

I suppose one of the most memorable recordings was with Pink Floyd on their Album The Wall and later with Roger Waters on his hit Album The Tide is Turning. We also performed on the accompanying film to this album where we all dressed up as miners emerging from a Coal mine all blackened up singing.

We will have some of our latest Cds for sale at the Festival. If you like our performances why not take one home?

AmeriCymru: You'll be in Toronto this year but what's next for the Pontarddulais Male Voice Choir. Any new recordings or tours in the pipeline?

Lyn: Our Calendar is quite full for the next year we have no tours planned as yet but we always keep our options open. Our biggest problem probably has to be refusing concerts as we are already engaged. Normally we can accommodate probably for the following year.

With the National Eisteddfod appearing quite close to us next year I suspect we might rise to the occasion and see if we can improve on that winning streak.

AmeriCymru: Do you have any final comments for the attendees and organisers of the North American Festival of Wales?

Lyn: I can only repeat how honoured we are in being asked to attend this event and how excited we are.

We know how hard it is to organise such an event and we would like to thank all those concerned for their enthusiasm and assistance in making this event possible for us.