Forget Saturday's final on the pitch at Twickenham, the real RWC final has already taken place and Cor Rygbi Gogledd Cymru are the Champions!
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Côr Rygbi Gogledd Cymru /North Wales Rugby Choir
The North Wales Rugby Choir was formed in September 2007 to take part in a Television Series on S4C, Codi Canu. The previous season’s competition had taken place between choirs from the Blues, Dragons, Ospreys, and Scarlet regions, no consideration had been given to North Wales. If any persons from the North wished to be involved, they could travel on a regular basis to rehearsals in the south. This suggestion was obviously not received very well amongst the rugby persons in North Wales. The case was taken up by a member of our North Wales rugby fraternity Alwyn Bevan and his wife Glena on behalf of a number of disgruntled choristers.
Following a great deal of pressure, it was decided to include North Wales in the second series of programs. The two venues put forward for rehearsals were Mold and Bangor eventually due to the majority of choristers coming from that area Bangor RFC became the base, as it is to this day.
The actual programme documented the choir’s endeavours to learn to sing together to compete against each other in a five way regional competition, for the honour of singing the National Anthem at the Grand Slam Rugby Match decider between Wales and France March 2008. The North Wales Rugby Choir won the competition, and decided to continue singing under the name of Côr Rygbi Gogledd Cymru it now has seventy members, under its musical director, Geraint Roberts.
A further series to coincide with the present Rugby World Cup has just been completed between the five regions, on this occasion the choirs were linked to one of the participating World Cup teams, the Blues to Fiji, Dragons to Uruguay, and Scarlet to Ireland, Ospreys to Australia and ourselves to Georgia. Each choir had to learn the national anthem and a folk song from their selected country, and incorporate into a 15 minute program in our case this was performed in the Fan zone at Cardiff Arms Park.
The final of the competition took place at Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, where we performed another 15 minute program after receiving an excellent adjudication from Sir Karl Jenkins, Tim Rhys Evans, and Roger Lewis we were declared the outright winner.
The main aim of the choir is to promote the public appreciation and enjoyment of mixed -voice choral singing by performing popular and classical music in both Welsh and English.
Although the Choir is relatively new it has performed publicly on numerous occasions and has appeared on National and Irish Television and other high profile events including, Grav concert at the National Eisteddfod Cardiff, Grand slam Celebration concert with the Stereo phonics, Heather Small, and Rhydian in the Millennium Stadium .
It has also had the honour of being appointed the official choir of the “Welsh Memorial in Flanders Campaign “this campaign was launched in October 2011 following a concert at Langemark church, the choir have held concerts throughout Wales and beyond to help achieve the target of £175,000 pounds required to complete the Monument in Flanders that`s dedicated to all Welsh persons that took part in World War I.
Members of the choir arranged a sponsored cycle from Bangor RFC through Wales, on to England, France and arriving in Langemark Belgium at the grave of Hedd Wyn in September 2013. This raised a considerable amount of money for the cause.
Following the unveiling ceremony in August 2014 the choir are continuing its association with the Welsh and Flemish committees until at least 2018. One of the main events being prepared at present in Belgium is for the weekend of July 31st 2017, to commemorate 100 years since the death in Flanders of Hedd Wyn.
New Members always welcome email cor-rygbi@bevreg.co.uk or ring 01248 600678
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