Risca Male Choir goes back to school
Risca Male Choir celebrates St David’s day in the company of the younger generation.
On 31st March we went a little way out of our area to Llangatock Church in Wales primary school where choir chairman Paul’s daughter, Bethan, teaches with responsibility for music and Welsh. That seemed like two great reasons to accept the invitation. The children had been studying the history of Welsh music, making it as a special topic, and they were certainly attentive and seemed very knowledgeable about the subject.
Fifteen RMC choristers travelled and were led from the keyboard by our Music Director Emeritus, Martin Hodson. The children absolutely lived (and loved) what Martin did as an introduction with them. Martin hasn’t lost any of the magic when teaching youngsters. He had them clapping different rhythms and singing a round that he’d written specially for them about the previous weekend’s rugby match.
We sang songs in Welsh for the children, then they sang for us in Welsh, accompanied by our very own Dave Tutton. Finally we had a rousing version of the Welsh National Anthem where we sang all together. It was a sound that wouldn’t have been out of place in The Principality Stadium. A great session, thoroughly enjoyed by RMC and by the staff and children of the school. Afterwards there were suggestions that the school would really like to do a joint Christmas concert in Llangatock village. Who knows what might come of it?
On St David’s day itself, we had our second concert, this time on home ground. We joined the small but lovely sounding choir at Risca Primary School who performed under the direction of Alison Thomas, better known to us as our own accompanist. This time RMC were under the baton of Matt Harrison, accompanied by Alison. The audience was large and very appreciative of the efforts of both choirs. It was a very special occasion for us all, being the first chance to revive our traditional joint efforts post pandemic and even a little sad, being Alison’s final concert with her school choir before leaving for new challenges.
All in all, Risca Male Choir felt that we had celebrated St David’s Day in style and achieved quite a lot of positivity in the two communities.
Paul Phillips
Chairman RMC
