Little did Bill Gates know that in 1975 when he created a company called Microsoft that seven people in Tenby were creating the Tenby Male Choir. Since then, both organisations have flourished despite difficulties at times. Bill Gates is known for his charitable foundation and likewise the choir must have raised more than £100,000 for local charities in that time.

So this year marks the 40th anniversary of Tenby Male Voice Choir and to celebrate this we have held a number of celebration concerts during the year where we have invited other local choirs and soloists, and only last week, the Integra Brass Band to perform with us. All of these though have been building up to ‘the big one’ our grand gala concert on September 5 where we expect to have a full house at St. Mary’s Church, Tenby, starting at 7.30.

The concert will bring together three excellent choirs and the award-winning Goodwick Brass Band.

The choirs are Talgarth Male Voice Choir formed in 1969 ‘bringing music from the Black mountains.’ Talgarth MVC has appeared at the Albert Hall on six occasions, twice at the Millennium Stadium as part of the World Choir and three times in the Festival of Remembrance concert at St. David’s Hall, Cardiff.

Cardiff Arms MVC was formed in 1966 and has been seen on BBC, Sky Sports, ITV, Channel 4, New Zealand and Australian TV, including a live performance on BBC1’s Grandstand.

Goodwick Brass Band has a terrific history well worth a look on their website if you have time. They were formed in 1911 and have won too many awards to list here, but I think it is enough to say that they won the UK National Brass Band finals (Section 2) in 2013.

It is not often that you will be able to see such an array of musical talent in one evening and certainly not in Tenby so this is a great opportunity to see them all.

Tickets are £10 and if there are any seats left you could purchase them on the night, but we have had advance sales of 150 tickets and you are advised to purchase them in advance either by going to our dedicated website page at www.tenbymalechoir.org/gala.html or by sending a cheque with SAE to our treasurer, David Blackmore, at Fonthill, Sandyhill Road, Saundersfoot, SA69 9PL.

A.G.K.