Kyabram

“keep up the good work!” “please come again” “Great quality and variety” “unforgettable”

On Sunday 17th August, following our concert on the 16th at Wagga Wagga, Vic Welsh completed the second half of its country tour with a concert at the Plaza Theatre in Kyabram, northern Victoria. The concert was compered by Rob Hopman, a member of the choir’s Bendigo chapter.

To open the concert, the choir sang a rousing bracket of three favourite Welsh hymns: Rachie, Aberystwyth and Cwm Rhondda. Ambrose Morgan then entertained the audience with a sporting tale of woe, following which the choir sang: Let All Men Sing, What Would I do without My Music and Working Man, the latter featuring Geoff Serpell as soloist.

Roger Bartlett then enthralled the audience with You’re Still You, before the full choir ended the first half of the performance with: Amazing Grace, Anvil Chorus (from Il Trovatore) and When the Saints Go Marching In.

The choir opened the second half with Yr Utgorn (The Trumpet), Anfonaf Angel and Dashenka, after which Rushan Hewawasam and Drew Hopkins sang the beautiful but haunting duet Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears. This was followed by a Celtic Medley consisting of Gwyr Harlech (Men of Harlech) and three other songs: Highland Cathedral (featuring Alex van Mens as soloist), Loch Lomond (soloist, Barry McMahon) and An Eriskay Love Lilt (Roger Bartlett).

The formal part of the programme ended with the choir’s own rousing arrangement of Waltzing Matilda. Upon being asked by the audience for an encore, the choir sang, unaccompanied, the lovely Welsh lullaby Si Hei Lwli ‘Mabi – a beautiful way to end a wonderful afternoon’s concert.

Comments from audience members included:

Love, love, love how you feature individual singers between choral pieces – brilliant harmonies – keep up the good work! Jayne

Just wonderful, please come again. Nola

Thoroughly enjoyed the performance! Great quality and variety. Please keep “Working Man” in your repertoire. Many thanks! Liz

You were all well presented. I’ve never been part of an audience of a distinguished male choir and your performance will be unforgettable. Thank-you each. Bret

And from the organisers:

Please pass on our thanks to your choir for the wonderful performance that they put on today in Kyabram.  Lots of fantastic comments from the audience who would like to see the choir come back to Ky.  It looks like we will have approx. $4000-00 to keep supporting chaplaincy at Ky P-12 College.

Report by Tony Edmonds