Our new season starts in the traditional way celebrating St. David’s Day (writes secretary, David Stewart-Walvin). However this year, we are having to give our concert on Thursday, March 2, as St. David’s Day falls on Ash Wednesday and the churches have other commitments. The concert will be in St. Johns Church at 8 pm.

During the winter period, we’ve been rehearsing a host of new songs and two of these will feature in the concert. They are the beautiful Welsh hymn Diolch I’r Ior and Pokerare Ana, a version of Calon Lan. 

These will form part of the programme for the evening featuring a wide variety of songs.

We are pleased to announce, in line with our policy of providing a platform for young local musicians, that the concert will also feature 17-years-old Amy Taylor who is in her final year in Greenhill School sixth form. She is principal flautist in both county and school orchestras and has attained grade eight on the flute and piano. She was also winner of the Valero secondary schools music festival. She will be accompanied by Dr. S. Evans.

Our full choir programme for 2017 can be downloaded in printable version from the choir website. See details below.

Later this year, we will be attending the Cornwall International Choir Festival featuring 21 British choirs, six of them from Wales, eight overseas choirs from Russia, Germany,  Norway, USA, Australia, Czech Republic, Sweden and Finland and no less than 28 Cornish choirs. It’s going to be an interesting and competitive weekend. 

We are also already coming up to the second rehearsal for the 2018 massed choirs concert in the Royal Albert Hall. These rehearsals bring together a number of local male voice choirs who will all be attending the Albert Hall concert. Guests at the concert will also be Bella Voce, a female four-part choir from Pembrokeshire who have recently featured on TV with Katherine Jenkins and only last weekend on S4C in their own right.

I have seen a number of Facebook posts recently about the health benefits of singing. ‘Singing daily for at least 10 minutes reduces stress, clears sinuses, improves posture and can even help you live longer.’ No wonder we have a couple of members in their 90s.

Another one is ‘Group singing is cheaper than therapy, healthier than drinking and certainly more fun than working out. It is the one thing in life where feeling better is pretty much guaranteed.’ This quote comes from the webpage www.moresingingplease.com/benefits-of-singing. If you go to that page, you will see a huge list of benefits.

So what better time to come along and see for yourself? You can join in or just sit and watch a rehearsal. You will see people who truly believe that singing is healthier than drinking but they are so keen on good health they drink as well (in moderation) to get the maximum benefit!

The choir has a really interesting and information packed website. If you haven’t visited it at www.tenbymalechoir.org then it’s really worth a visit. Amongst other things there are videos of the choir. These videos are all live so they may not always be our best performance but they are still enjoyable. As webmaster, I keep the website bang up-to-date with news, photos, the choir blog and absolutely anything you need to know about the choir. If you’ve enjoyed a concert, there is also a guestbook where you can put your comments and read what others think. I also maintain a choir Facebook page. Simply search Facebook for Tenby Male Choir

I can be contacted as secretary on anything to do with the choir on (01834) 844926.