Canorion Cymreig Victoria Welsh Choir

After prompting from a Welsh member of our parish I finally attended rehearsals with this choir and recently successfully auditioned to join as a Second Tenor. The choir was formed in 1980 by 7 expatriate Welshmen, and performs at least 25% of its repertoire in the Welsh language. It is quite a large male choir with 80 members made up of Bass’s, Baritones, Second Tenors and Tenors with a good sprinkling of those originally from Wales. Choir recitals are challenging since the choir sings without the aid of written music and consequently it takes a long time to learn the harmony sufficiently well from the music and to memorize all the words, before you’re competent to participate in concerts.

Nevertheless I intend to persevere with this rather full commitment (2 nights a week rehearsals and extensive touring to give concerts) and see what transpires. To date I have found the choir to be a grand group of very committed people with extensive talent covering a large repertoire of traditional choral, contemporary and operatic music.

I attended their recent St David’ s Day Concert at Monash University which was very good and featured a number of well known artists including their guest Welsh conductor who is in great demand overseas.

Apart from the choir the concert also featured a prominant harpist and a Welsh folk group called Pendragon Dreaming (Pendragon was the name given to King Arthur of the ancient Britons) with a didgeridoo, harp, guitar, flute, bass guitar and vocals. The Concert began with Welsh dancers demonstrating their traditional dances including jigs, reels, and hornpipes.

Click here if you would like to read about the recent St David’s Day Concert, or about the choir.