The last week has been relatively quiet, by our standards at least, with just the one concert in St. Johns Church, Tenby, in aid of the Guide Dogs for the Blind. Since our concert season for this year began on St. David's Day, we have already held 14 formal concerts, two hotel concerts at the Giltar Hotel, a wedding performance, an outdoor concert at Tenby harbour and a mini-concert in the lifeboat station, so that's almost 20 performances of one sort or another in just over four months. It's a good job we are all young and fit or we could not keep up this pace.

Obviously, the main focus of our concerts is to raise charity funds which we raise locally, although we do appreciate that we benefit also from visitors from far afield at our concerts. There is also a local perspective to the funds we raise in terms of its destination. Five of the concerts have been in aid of our local churches, St. Johns, St. Mary's and St. Teilo's. The proceeds therefore go to the upkeep of the churches and to other causes which they support. Two of the concerts have been held in aid of our own administration as it is quite a challenge keeping a choir going with the various costs involved although, of course, all of the members give their time without reimbursement and bear their own expenses. But five of the concerts have been held to raise money directly for worthy charities. To date, we have supported the charities Motor Neurone Disease, Pembroke Gateway, Christian Aid, Wales Air Ambulance and Guide Dogs for the Blind. We know that many people and most of them local people will benefit from these concerts.

Whatever the eventual destination of the money raised for charity, it does 'begin at home' in the sense that the money is raised here. Coming to a concert is an enjoyable evening out (we are frequently told!), but it's a chance to help charities as well. Next week on Tuesday, July 16, we will be raising money for the Friends of Tenby Museum at our concert in St. Johns Church, starting at 8 pm.

And what is the origin of the phrase 'charity begins at home?' It's not from the Bible as is sometimes thought, as far as we know, though there is a strong biblical connection. There are certainly plenty of references in the Bible with related sentiments, but in fact the man it is attributed to was the person who first translated the Bible into English, John Wycliffe who coined the phrase 'charite schuld bigyne at hem-self' in 1383. Obviously when he did that, they hadn't invented spelling.

In just a few weeks, we will be appearing in the prestigious Fishguard Musical Festival. There are 22 high quality performances by celebrated international musicians. The Tenby Male Choir has been invited to perform in the festival and is the only male choir which will be performing. We are extremely proud to have been invited. The festival runs from July 19 to August 1.

There is a full programme on the festival website fishguardmusicfestival.co.uk showing that it features a wide variety of quality music and related arts by well respected musicians and performers. I will give more details on this next week, but people wishing to come and watch the choir's festival concert or any of the other festival performances should go to the website as soon as possible for tickets to avoid disappointment.

Due to the Tuesday concert next week, we won't be having a rehearsal on that evening, but we will have a rehearsal on Thursday instead unless the good weather we have been having continues. If it does we may well have a free concert down at the harbour in Tenby. Visitors are welcome at our rehearsals in the County Club on The Croft, but if we are not there then head for the harbour and you may well see a free concert.

An alternative way to find out about the choir is just to ask a member anywhere we are performing, but there is also a website http://www.tenbymalechoir.org">www.tenbymalechoir.org and a Facebook account (just Google Tenby Male Choir Facebook) or you can get more information on anything about the choir on (01834) 813198.

A.G.K.