Well-known Welsh conductor returns to the Cambrian Hall
By EIFION WILLIAMS
The 2009 Welsh Weekend on November 6-8 will celebrate the 80th anniversary of the building of the Cambrian Hall.
The guest conductor at the Gymanfa Ganu (Singing Festival) on Sunday afternoon, November 8, will be Eifion Thomas, musical director of the Llanelli Male Choir. Eifion is making a return visit to Vancouver, having been guest conductor and soloist at the Vancouver Welsh Society's Centenary Celebrations in October 2007.
Eifion Thomas is well known to Welsh North Americans, having in recent years conducted the annual Gymanfa Ganu at the North American Festival of Wales in Victoria, Richmond, Seattle and New York.
He is also an accomplished soloist who has sung with the Llanelli choir throughout North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. He is much in demand in the UK as an oratorio soloist.
Under Eifion Thomas' direction, the Llanelli Male Choir has gained most of the honours available in competitive choral singing, including several prizes at the Royal National Eisteddfod of Wales. The choir has also made many radio and television appearances in the UK, singing with artists as diverse as Bryn Terfel and the Pet Shop Boys.
On the afternoon of November 8, visitors are invited to the Cambrian Hall to join enthusiastically in the communal hymn-singing under the baton of one of the finest musical conductors in Wales. The accompanist will be Barry Yamaguchi, regular accompanist for the Vancouver Orpheus Choir.
The soloist at the Gymanfa will be another talented visitor from Wales, soprano soloist and harpist Joy Cornock.
Joy, a native of Fishguard, Pembrokeshire, has won numerous awards in her brief career as a soloist. She is a graduate of the Royal Welsh College of Music and has won many County and National Eisteddfod prizes, including the Violet Mary Roberts Scholarship at the 2006 and 2007 Welsh National Eisteddfod for the best soprano between the ages of 19 and 25 years.
Joy makes regular appearances in recitals and concerts around the UK, Spain, Germany and Ireland and has sung with famous Welsh male choirs such as Dunvant and the Morriston Orpheus .
She has appeared many times on television and, together with her harpist sister Georgina, has released a CD entitled Cytgord Cariadus (Loving Harmony).
Eifion Thomas and Joy Cornock will also be featured singers at the Anniversary Banquet to be held in the Cambrian Hall on Saturday evening, November 7.
On Friday evening, November 6, there will be a Noson Lawen, a traditional Welsh evening of music, comedy and other forms of amateur entertainment.
The Master of Ceremonies will be long-time Welsh Society member Neville Thomas. The evening will end with a social gathering for members and guests in the Red Dragon lounge.
On Sunday morning, November 8, the day of the Gymanfa Ganu, there will be a bilingual non-denominational religious service at the Cambrian Hall, conducted by Welsh Society member John Cann.
The Welsh Weekend will also feature the annual participation of the Dylan Thomas Circle, to be held on November 7 in the Red Dragon.
Following the Circle's Annual General Meeting there will be a review of the group's formation and history by its three founding members - Alan Jones, Ted Langley and Neville Thomas.
This will be followed by the ever-popular ploughman's lunch. The afternoon's events will include an analysis of a Dylan Thomas poem by Alan Jones and a presentation by a guest speaker, who has not yet been confirmed.
This year's Welsh Weekend Celebration promises a wealth of entertainment for anyone interested in Welsh culture and tradition.
All the events will take place in the Cambrian Hall, listed as a Vancouver Heritage B building and home to the Welsh of the Lower Mainland since 1929.
Further information on the Anniversary Welsh Weekend can be obtained from the Welsh Society website www.welshsociety.com.
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