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THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE TONNA
MALE VOICE CHOIR |
The Tonna
Male Voice Choir evolved from a weekly "sing a long" at the
Railway Tavern in Aberdulais. From this group of men with a love of
singing, in keeping with the Welsh tradition, it was not long before a
committee was formed, and
thus the foundation for the Tonna Male Voice Choir was laid. The
choirs' first Chairman was Mr Harold Bradley with Mr Clive Evans as
Secretary.
An initial
membership of 16 in 1968 increased rapidly and within a year the choir
was some
60 strong, this necessitated a change of rehearsal room from the
Railway
Tavern to the Tonna Junior School. Membership continued to increase and
by 1971 the choir numbers had grown to over 80, this strength of
numbers
continued for several years but then in common with most other choirs
in
the area, the declining industrial base in the area took its toll and
numbers
started to decline, there has been a revival of interest over recent
years
and the current-membership of the choir stands at 32.
The first
conductor of the choir was Mr. Les Davies from Neath who was at the
helm for 6 years, and who was responsible for setting the choir onto
the narrow path that is the search for excellence. When he retired in
1974 his successor was
Mr. Sid Jones, who held the baton for 4 years. Following the retirement
of Mr. Jones ,Mrs. Mair Lewis was appointed. At this time she was most
probably the youngest conductor of a male voice choir in Wales! Mrs.
Lewis
was the Musical Director for 18 years and together with accompanist
Lianne Miller was instrumental in pushing the standards of the choir a
little
further along that elusive search for perfection. Next to take up the
baton
was Aled Maddock who remained in charge for 5 years before pressure of
other commitments forced him to stand down.
Today’s
Musical Team consists of Musical Director Susan Hopkins, although born in
Resolven Susan now lives and works in
Tonna, she has progressed “through the ranks” of the choir so to speak,
she
joined the choir in 1986 as assistant accompanist, and was appointed to
the
post of Musical Director in 2002. Susan teaches at Tonna Primary
School
where she is also
music co-ordinator, Susan is a former pupil of Madam Eileen Gethin
Jones of
Tonna. Accompanist to the choir is, Elizabeth (Liz) Capra. Liz, who hails from Port Talbot, studied
piano with Iverna
Ward Williams, became accompanist for the Port Talbot Afan Ladies
Choir, was a
member of the well known Port Talbot group ‘TRILOGY’ for whom she used
her many
talents including singing, playing piano and guitar. Liz was
accompanist for
the Cor Meibion Aberavon, and toured with them to Canada
and Holland, she is
currently
organist for St.
Joseph’s R.C. Church
Port
Talbot.
Of the original
band of choristers we were proud that until recently there were still 3
founder
members in today's choir. Unfortunately there are now only 2
founder
members remaining, Keith Thomas who has been unable to attend choir
since
Christmas 2002 has now decided to retire from the choir. There are also
several
current
members who joined the choir shortly after its formation, this is truly
outstanding service by any standard of measurement. The committee are
proud
to have presented 13 long service members with their 25 year badges
over recent months.
The choir made
its
first public appearance on Thursday 24th April 1969 at St. Catherine's
Parish Hall, Melyn, Neath in a concert for Christian Aid, this
tradition of supporting charity has continued to the present time with
some 90% of
choir concerts being for charitable purposes. The choir are proud of
their
achievements in having raised something of the order of £280,000 for
charity over the past 39 years.
With the
closure of the Tonna junior School the choir were once again forced to
move "home", this time a short distance to the new Community Centre
which is still the headquarters of the choir, and where it practises on
Monday and Wednesday evenings, and where new members are assured of a
warm and friendly welcome.
The choirs
first Annual Concert was performed at the Welfare Hall in Resolven on
Thursday 22nd January 1970, this venue was used for several years for
the Annual Concerts
of the choir, unfortunately there were no suitable buildings in the
village
of Tonna to accommodate such an event. A change of venue to the Gwyn
Hall
in Neath was made in 1972 and this is now the home for the choirs
Annual
Concerts.
On September
lst 1971 the choir made their first Radio broadcast on the BBC Welsh
Programme, "AWR GERDD", it is interesting to note that the supporting
artists on this programme were also from the village of Tonna. From
this first excursion into the world of radio, the choir has now made
several broadcasts. The
choirs first appearance on Television was in 1977 during a tour to
Scotland,
since then they have appeared several times, featuring on program’s as
diverse as "Songs of praise" and Channel 4's "Big Breakfast". The choir
also recorded a series of programmes for BBC Radio Cymru which were
broadcast in the Autumn of the year 2000.
With the
increasing popularity of the choir, several requests were being
received for recordings and so, in September 1981 the decision was
taken to put the sound of the choir
onto record. The making of a recording requires a substantial financial
investment and fortunately a sponsor was found to finance the venture,
this proved to be a successful venture because within a short time of
the recording "Take me Home" going on sale, the choir were able to
repay the sponsorship. The choir has since made another four
recordings, this time financed completely from within the choir
(valuable assistance being provided by the Ladies Section) in November
1986 the recording "Memories" was released and in May 1993 to celebrate
the 25th Anniversary of the choir the latest release "A Silver
Celebration" was issued. All these recordings have proved popular with
audiences throughout the country and the decisions to invest in these
recordings have proved worthwhile. To keep up with the new technology,
in September of 1999 the choir released their first CD "Unwaith Eto /
Once Again" this was also released on tape, the choirs latest release
is a CD entitled "KILGWRRWG", this is a joint recording with Chepstow
M.V.C. and features tracks
from both choirs as well as joint items.
The choir has
toured extensively throughout the UK and has on several occasions
toured abroad. The choirs first overseas tour was in 1980 when, with
some trepidation the choir ventured from the shores of the British
Isles to Italy. This trepidation was unfounded as the tour was a huge
success both on and off the stage.
Since then the choir has travelled extensively and made numerous
friends
in Sweden, Brittany, Germany, Italy, Malta, Ireland, Holland, Canada
and Prague as well
as all corners of the British Isles, the choir were also privileged to
be
part of the inaugural World Choir event at Cardiff Arms Park in 1992
and
to have participated in the Millennium Songs of Praise at the
Millennium stadium
in Cardiff to celebrate the dawn of the new Millennium.
This making of
friends has not been confined to the outward tours of the choir as
Tonna has on many occasions been delighted to play host to visiting
choirs. The choir
were particularly pleased in their 25th anniversary year to
welcome back to Wales for their third visit, the Doremi choir from
Gothenburg, the Doremi choir were also celebrating, it was their Golden
Anniversary . It
speaks volumes that they chose to visit Tonna as part of their
celebration.
The choir has
always been keen to encourage young artists to take part in their
Annual Concerts, and wherever possible these are local artistes, and
the choir are delighted that many of these young people have since
become famous, not only in
Wales, but throughout the World, included amongst these are Rebecca
Evans, Sian Cothi and Katherine Jenkins. The choir has also had the
pleasure of
performing with many "household names" from the world of entertainment
and appeared on many occasions with the late, great, Ryan Davies.
Although at the
outset there was some discussion over the name to be given to the
choir, in settling the name of Tonna the committee were possibly
unaware that they were re-establishing the long musical tradition of
the village. Records indicate that there was a male voice choir in
Tonna as early as 1890 when the conductor was a Mr. Richard Rees who,
apart from his involvement with the choir was also a conductor at
Nazareth Chapel in the village. By 1899 the choir had earned a good
reputation and as a result was invited to sing at Craig Y Nos Castle.
The item sang was "A MARRIAGE ODE" and the cover to the music has this
explanatory note. "Composed on the occasion of the marriage of Madame
Adelina Patti to Baron Cedestrom by Mr. T. ldris Jones, Melyncrythan,
Neath, set to music by Mr. Jonah Morgan, GTSC Tonna, Neath,
and sung at Craig Y Nos Castle, Spring 1899 by kind permission and
under the patronage of Baron and Baroness Cedestrom by the Tonna Male
Voice Party conducted by Mr. D. Saunders Davies".
The current
choir then has a proud reputation to maintain, and this it is doing
with a pride and commitment that will surely see the next 39 years pass
as happily
and successfully as the past 39 years. The choir has always set itself
high standards and has always been keen to measure these standards, and
this it does through competition. The choir competes regularly, not
only
in Welsh eisteddfodau but have also competed throughout the rest of the
UK and indeed abroad. Generally the results of the choirs competitive
endeavours have been favourable and they can, with some justification,
claim to be
amongst the top choirs in the country for their size of choir. Listed
elsewhere
in this website is an indication of the success of the choir in
competitions.
Over the years
the
choir has been fortunate to have a strong group of Patrons, this group
is now growing steadily and gives valuable support to the choir, this
support enables the choir to accept requests for charitable concerts
that might not
be otherwise possible. The choir are appreciative of the support given
by Patrons, and are attempting to involve them in more of the social
activities of the choir, anyone wishing to become a Patron of the choir
is invited to contact the P.R.O. or Secretary for further details.
They say that
behind every good man there is a good woman, this is certainly true, as
the choir boasts an extremely hard working Ladies Committee who are
always ready to assist the choir with any major undertakings such as
the hospitality for visiting choirs and "manning" the door for the many
concerts performed by the choir.
To the future
then, and the Tonna Male Voice Choir have no intention of taking life
easy now that
they are 39 years old. Engagements are already flowing in for the next
2
years, with highlights being the planned visit to Fuengirola in
2009,
another visit to the Royal Albert Hall for the 1000 voices concert, as
well
as the many local concerts which are perhaps taken a little for
granted.
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