Tagged: portland

St David's of Wales Day Benefit Concert

Celebrate the patron saint of Wales' day with the Portland Phoenix Chamber Choir and the Welsh Dragon Choir, as they sing traditional songs of Wales and other cultures. There will be music followed by dessert and a silent auction.

The concert is to raise funds for the Chamber Choir's trip to compete at the Llangollen International Eisteddfod in Wales in July 2019.

BUY TICKETS HERE

AmeriCymru: Hi Justin and many thanks for agreeing to this interview. What can you tell us about the history of the Phoenix Choir?

Justin: The Portland Phoenix Choir is a new non-profit choral organization made up of two separate choirs - the auditioned Chamber Choir and the non-auditioned Choral Union. It's made up of students, faculty and community singers who used to perform as the Marylhurst University Choirs. Sadly, Marylhurst, where I served as Director of Choral Activities, unexpectedly closed last spring, leaving us all musically homeless. In a really touching gesture, the singers asked me if we could continue singing together - thus the Phoenix choirs were born, choosing as our name the well-known image of the mythical bird that resurrects itself from its own ashes. It's our Chamber Choir that is traveling to sing and compete in Wales this summer.

AmeriCymru: You will be performing at the Llangollen Festival in north Wales this year. Care to tell us more?

Justin: It's a huge honor even to be accepted to compete at the Llangollen Eisteddfod. It's know worldwide as one of the finest choral festivals on the planet, and this year they received over a hundred applications. We're competing in two categories against choirs from all over the world. The winning choir gets the title of Choir of the World and the Pavarotti Trophy (named after the famous singer), but in reality, we're just thrilled about the chance to hear so many exceptional groups from all over the world, as well as represent Portland, Oregon, the Pacific Northwest and the United States on a highly visible global stage.

AmeriCymru: I guess transporting and accommodating a choir to an event like this is a massive logistical exercise. How are your plans proceeding thus far?

Justin: It's a logistical challenge, true - but it's a financial challenge above all. Since we're a non-profit that's literally six months old, and no longer have a university backing us up with their resources, raising the money to go is a tall order. Our singers are rich in musical talent but not so in financial resources. So we're looking for community partners interested in helping us represent the region and the world, as well as create ever stronger ties between Wales and the United States.

AmeriCymru: You have a fundraiser on March 1st here in Portland. Can you share the details?

Justin: Yes, we're very excited to collaborate with the Portland Dragon Choir, our city's fine Welsh chorus, on Friday March 1st. I'm sure I don't need to tell your readers that's St David's Day, the feast day of the patron saint of Wales. The music will feature Welsh favorites, storytelling, a silent auction, and our Chamber Choir singing the music we're taking to Llangollen. It's Friday, March 1st at St David's of Wales Church (of course!) in SE Portland, and tickets can be purchased online at wales.brownpapertickets.com.

AmeriCymru: How would you describe the choir's repertoire? Will you be performing any old Welsh choral favorites at Llangollen?

Justin: Our repertoire is quite eclectic; everything from sixteenth century polyphony, to challenging modern works, to African-American spirituals. En route to Llangollen, we're honored to be invited to sing two Evensong services at Christ Church in Oxford, so we're diving into that Anglican repertoire, too.

But we mainly want to celebrate Wales's incredible and beautiful choral singing tradition. We're currently learning "Calon Lan," so that we can be sure to please our Welsh audiences! We'll also be singing a Gymnafa Ganu in June at Bryn Seion Welsh Church, which looks like it will be terrific fun. Welsh is such a beautiful language, but quite difficult, so learning to sing it has been quite challenging!

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

Justin: We cordially invite you to attend our St David's Day Benefit Concert on Friday March 1st, to celebrate Welsh-American friendship and the choral music, songs and storytelling of Wales, and help us get across the pond to represent America at the Llangollen Festival. More information can be found at wales.brownpapertickets.com or, if you use Facebook, here: https://www.facebook.com/events/313780339242497/

Join us for an evening of music, song, and good times at our annual Noson Lawen, thrown by the Welsh Society of Oregon, and co-sponsored by Bryn Seion Welsh Church. Features the Welsh Society Choir, Andrea Wild & the Bad Wolves, our own children's troupe Y Ddreigiau Fach (Little Dragons), ViVoce Women's Chorus and the Bridgetown Morrismen.

Admission is sliding scale starting at $10 (with discounts for families). Doors open at 6:30 and the music starts around 7pm.

Gymanfa Ganu, Bryn Seion 2008

 
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Sunday, 22 June 2008, Bryn Seion Welsh Church in Beavercreek, Oregon held its 73rd Gymanfa Ganu.A Gymanfa Ganu (guh-MAN-va GA-nee), is a Welsh "sing gathering" performing hymns in Welsh, sung in four-part harmony by all the attendees, under the direction of a choral director. Welsh communities in countries all over the world hold their own Gymanfa Ganu. In the US, a national Gymanfa Ganu is held by the Welsh National Gymanfa Ganu Association (WNGGA) .

In the United States, the Gymanfa Ganu was a way for many Welsh Americans to hold and share their cultural heritage, preserve their language in a majority-English speaking country and unite their communities. It's still that today, a means of coming together to celebrate and enjoy being Welsh.

Bryn Seion is the oldest Welsh church on the west coast, delivering services in its community for more than 100 years. Welsh immigrants to the Portland area settled in the fertile farm community of Beavercreek, sent for friends and family to join them and then wanted a church of their own to conduct services and to sing as a community. In 1884, Bryn Seion Welsh Church was built by that community, on land donated by one of its members.

The Gymanfa leader and soloists stand at the podium, under Welsh and American flags. Next to the podium sits and Eistedfodd chair inscribed, "Eistedfodd, Talaeth Wash. 1890". Reasearch is still being done into the origins of this chair but so far the story seems to be that a member of a Welsh church in Washington state won this chair, then gave it to a family member who was a parishioner of Bryn Seion, who then made a gift of the chair to the church.

The Eisteddfod is a traditional Welsh festival of poetry, music and dance, held in Wales and all over the world. Chairs like this were traditionally given as prizes.

Attendees at the Bryn Seion Gymanfa Ganu come from all over the state of Oregon, from other states and other countries. Gymanfa Director Tim Dyck and the attendees were accompanied by Harpist Annette Pritchard and Organist Beverly Ratajak. The participants sit in the church's pews to sing from hymn books in English and Welsh. Whether you know Welsh or not, there's an invigorating, quiet beauty in holding those lyrics in your hands and singing them with a group of people just like you, all there for the same purpose: to revel in being Welsh, to whatever degree, for the moment. And to hear beautiful song in Welsh.

If you're interested in finding a Gymanfa Ganu in your area, see the WNGGA site link, above. That site also has links to purchase hymn books in Welsh-English and an edition with the Welsh lyrics rendered phonetically.

Bryn Seion's Gymanfa Ganu is held every fourth Sunday in June, at the church's address on Kamrath Road in Beavercreek, near the intersections of Cymry Lane and Swansea Lane. The first day's service and singing are at 11:00 AM, the second at 2:00 PM which is followed by a te bach ("small tea"), then the third at 6:00 PM. Singing is in English and Welsh, no experience necessary, only enthusiasm. All are welcome.

Welsh Society of Oregon, Gymanfa Ganu 2017

 
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Noson Lawen - Portland, Oregon 2017

 
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The Welsh Society of Oregon’s annual Noson Lawen was hosted by the Welsh Society Festival Chorus who presented a handful of enchanting Welsh tunes.  MCs Andrea Wild and Hugo Glanville led the crowd in pub singing and their band Three Pound Note  also joined them on the stage for some Welsh, Cornish and English folk songs. Throughout the night there were contributions from the floor and one of the evenings highlights was a reading of Dylan Thomas's 'August Bank Holiday' given by Jonathan Nicholas.

Bryn Seion Welsh Church, Beavercreek, Oregon

Bryn Seion (Mt Zion) was built in 1884, and is the last active Welsh church on the Pacific Coast. Visit the church website here: Bryn Seion Welsh Church

What Is A Gymanfa Ganu?

From the Welsh Society of Oregon website:- "Gymanfa Ganu (guh-mahn-vah GAH-nee) is a magnificent Welsh hymn-singing festival and more! Literally meaning “sing gathering,” it is a tradition of song and worship that has been practiced in Wales for centuries. The songs are sung in English and Welsh in four-part harmonies. Bryn Seion Welsh Church, Beavercreek, Oregon, has carried on the Gymanfa Ganu tradition since 1935. You don’t need to know Welsh to make a joyful noise, so please join us."..... Read More

The Welsh In The Northwest

Many Welsh moved into Oregon and Washington Territory in the 1880's. When train travel opened up the west. They found that land was cheap and abundant. Compared with the Great Plains, the land was much morelike that of Wales.

AmeriCymru: Hi Mari, it's been a while since we last interviewed you on the site and you have an exciting announcement to make, yes?

Mari: Yes, to both parts of that question, Ceri. You last interviewed me on the web site in August of last year, on the publication of my second novel The Witch of Eye . But the reason why I have an exciting announcement has more to do with my very first novel, Root of the Tudor Rose . When you interviewed me about that one, I told you that I was committed to spreading the gospel about the Welsh origins of the Tudors, the most famous dynasty in "English" history. And it's this missionary zeal that's bringing me to the US at the end of June, to address the American Conference of the Historical Novel Society with a presentation entitled The Tudors: an English dynasty? (I shall be saying this with the same imperious expression used by Dame Edith Evans as Lady Bracknell in the Importance of Being Earnest when she pauses, looks down her nose and says disdainfully "... a handbag!" If you don't know it, you'll find it on YouTube -  A Handbag )

AmeriCymru: What can you tell us about the HNS and the conference?

Mari: The HNS is the international Historical Novel Society, which exists to promote and encourage the reading and writing of historical fiction. They bring out a review every quarter devoted to new historical fiction and they've said some nice things about both my books in that.

Root of the Tudor Rose was featured in their 'New Fiction' section and the review of The Witch of Eye in November last year hailed the book as "... a thoroughly enjoyable read, a very well-researched story, where the narrative licks along irresistibly." I was delighted by that, of course. The Society holds a conference every year, alternately in the UK and in the States. Last year it was held in Oxford and the American visitors raved about the magical 'dreaming spires' of that lovely old university city. This year the conference takes place in Portland, Oregon, which gives me the opportunity of visiting a part of America I've never seen before. I'm told it's wonderful and I look forward tremendously to seeing it for myself.

AmeriCymru: So this is not your first visit to the States?

Mari: No, it will actually be my fourth. The first three were all in order to make programmes and I particularly enjoyed making a documentary programme for S4C about the Welsh/American baritone Thomas Ll. Thomas. His middle name was Llyfnwy but not many Americans could manage that! The reason why I was so interested in him was that he came from my own home town of Maesteg in the Llynfi Valley and the family emigrated to Scranton, Pennsylvania in the 1920's when Welsh mining engineers were much in demand. "Llyf", as the family called him, didn't go into mining: instead he became one of the most famous singers of his generation, often featuring in opera and concerts in New York and all over the country. Eventually, he became known as "The Voice of Firestone" because he presented and sang in "The Firestone Hour", the hugely popular television programme of light music, transmitted live every Sunday evening and seen from coast-to-coast. Not bad for a little Maesteg boy! You've never heard of him? Tell you what, I'll write an article for you one of these days ... or perhaps he should be the subject of my next historical novel? Now, there's a thought!

AmeriCymru: Sounds like a fascinating story. But, to get back to what we were talking about - do you have any other plans while you are in the States?

Mari: Well, the HNS Conference itself only lasts for three days which means that I'm going to have quite a lot of free time on my hands, depending on how long I decide to stay. I rather fancy making that wonderful train journey down the coast to California to take in a few places I've heard of but never visited. Then perhaps a week in San Francisco before flying home because my other half, Jonah, describes himself as an ageing hippie and nothing would please him more than to have his photograph taken somewhere significant in Haight-Ashbury. So we're likely to be kicking around the area for a week or so and, of course, this gives me the opportunity of visiting some Welsh Societies in the area if anyone would like to invite me to come along and talk to them. Believe me, I could talk the hind leg off a Welsh dragon about all sorts of things - my old career as a broadcaster, my 'new' career as a writer, the origins of the Tudor dynasty and why I wanted to write the first book ... or even Thomas Ll. Thomas' career if need be. In Welsh or in English, of course. Just get in touch via my web site at Mari Griffith

AmeriCymru: Any final message for our readers?

Mari: My best regards to them all, as ever. And if anyone takes a particular delight in historical fiction, they can find out a lot more about the Historical Novel Society and its American conference by following the link below. And, if you do decide to come along, be sure to come and find me to say "hello". Historical Novel Society

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

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