Toronto Welsh Male Voice Choir coming to N.L. this weekend
As you read this, the Toronto Welsh Male Voice Choir en route to Newfoundland and Labrador for its first tour to the province, beginning with a performance in Conception Bay South on July 7.
“We’re hugely excited,” 15year member and chairman of the choir committee Greg Brown about the tour said.
Plans for the Newfoundland tour have been in the works for two years. Many of the choir’s members have previously been to the province and wanted to come back to perform with their choir.
The choir has previously toured to Nova Scotia.
“Newfoundland is the kind of place that once you’ve been once, you keep coming back,” Brown said.
The Toronto Welsh Male Voice Choir was founded 23 years ago upon a desire to share in the Welsh heritage of the original members.
Today, most of the members are not Welsh, although a quarter of the music they perform is in Welsh or about Wales.
In addition to the Welsh choral music, the choir performs a selection of Canadian songs, show tunes and modern music such as “Sounds of Silence” by Simon and Garfunkel and songs by Stan Rogers.
In preparation for their Newfoundland tour, the choir has learned the “Ode to Newfoundland” and “We’ll Rant and We’ll Roar.”
“We’re excited to perform some East Coast stuff,” Brown said. “We think it’s a program that people will enjoy.”
36 of the 45 choir members will be coming to Newfoundland for the tour.
“We’re looking forward to all of our performances,” Brown said.
Most performances will be donation based.
“Newfoundland is the kind of place that once you’ve been once, you keep coming back.” Greg Brown, choir committee