The Australians were back in town last week, but not in a spirit of competition on the rugby field or the cricket pitch; the Australian Welsh Male Choir were here to co-operate in singing some beautiful music with Tenby Male Choir at St. Mary's Church on Thursday, October 14. The same choir last visited us four years ago, and the compére for the Australian choir pieces was Tony Dickinson who once lived in Tenby and who has family still here. Despite the awful rainy, cold weather, a very good crowd of about 200, including friends and wives of the Australian choristers, came to enjoy the concert. Brightly lit, St. Mary's was warm and welcoming, despite the upheaval of the road and pavement outside where men were working. The Tenby concert was the fourth in a series of 10 concerts the Australians are singing in a tour of the UK from October 6 to 23. The choir, about 55 in number back home in Australia, sent 35 singers to the UK with their musical director, Ann Credlin B.Mus., M.Ed., their accompanist Simon Loveless B.Mus. and a fabulous soprano, Yolanta Mielczarek. The Australian Welsh Male Choir began at almost the same time as Tenby Male Choir, about 30 years ago. In Australia a group of predominantly expatriate Welshmen gathered to sing carols at a Christmas concert and proved so popular that they went on to form the Peninsula Cambrian Society Welsh Male Choir. After several name changes as the choir enlarged, they became the Australian Welsh MC in 1985. In 1981, they had been invited to join the Association of Welsh Male Choirs of Wales, being the first ever choir outside of Wales to receive this honour. They toured the UK in 1984, in 1988, and in 2000 prior to this tour, singing in the '1,000 Voices' Royal Albert Hall concerts, as they will do so tomorrow (Saturday). Introduced by Tony Dickinson, the Australians joined with Tenby MC for the first two items on the programme; 'Speed your Journey' and 'American Trilogy'. Following this, Tony spoke briefly to the audience about their tour and the history of the choir and then he introduced their soloist. Born in Krakow, Poland, Yola began to study piano at the age of eight, then cornet, then flute. She matriculated with music, taking private singing lessons, then went to the Krakow Conservatory of Music, where she studied singing for three years. She sang Dvorak's 'Song to the Moon'. It was just fabulous! The audience were totally unprepared for the beauty of this young woman's voice. As a trained opera singer, of course, the sound filled St. Mary's, and certainly this reviewer has never heard a better voice at St. Mary's or in any other venue outside of WNO. As one of the Australian choristers said to me, "She is a Diva," yet all of her talent is for charity singing in numerous choirs and concerts in Australia. Tenby Male Choir led the next part of the programme. With Paul Rapi accompanying and their MD Christine Shewry conducting, the choir sang four items from their seasonal repertoire and Eric Mullins rounded off with a solo. Tony then introduced the Australian choir's pieces, which included an unusual rendering of 'Waltzing Matilda', a medley of African tunes, known as 'African Trilogy' - which was beautifully sung and caused much applause and calls of 'encore' - 'Deep River', with Yola as accompanying soloist, and 'Gwahoddiad', sung in Welsh. As several members of the choir are Welsh speakers, the Australian's pronunciation was very good. Next came a tribute piece to the late Mrs. Olwen Myfanwy Dickinson - a poem about Wales she had written, which was set to music by the Australian choir MD. This was sung as a duet by her son Tony and Anne Credlin, and was really quite emotive. The Australians then did an encore, singing 'I still call Australia, Home' which evokes all the mixed feelings of those who've left the 'old' world for the 'new'. As a final item, Yola sang a duet with Anne, which was again accompanied by Simon - a very versatile musician who plays for five choirs and sings with two, back in Australia. They sang 'The Flower Song', that very famous and well-loved piece, beautifully. To end the concert, the combined choirs, conducted by Christine and accompanied firstly by Simon and then by Paul, sang 'The Lord's Prayer' and 'Morte Christe'. In the last item, it was good to see as many as five visiting choristers in the audience, get up to join the joint choir. It was an excellent finalé to the concert, which finished with the Australian, English and Welsh National Anthems. Afterwards, the Australians were entertained with a magnificent buffet at the County Club where a most happy time of reunion, chats and presentations to and by the choir chairmen took place. The following evening, Friday, the Australians gave a combined concert with Whitland Male Choir in St. Mary's Church, Whitland. This had quite a different tone, with much more Welsh singing, and Yola singing 'Jerusalem' to huge applause. Again, the audience was stunned by the beauty of her voice and many people queried why she was not 'on the world circuit' of opera singers. When I asked her, she said she wanted to be at home with her family as much as possible. Tenby Male Choir joins forces with several other choirs of the locality at Folly Farm for their next concert on October 27. Tickets are at £6 a head and are selling very quickly.

M.N.