The concert will take place in the Cathedral at 7.30 pm on Tuesday 28^th May. Admission is free with a leaving collection. I do hope you can come and enjoy their unique harmony. (Newport Cathedral Concert Series).

Professional musicians

“LYRA” is a community of professional musicians. Most of our members are students or postgraduates of Saint-Petersburg Conservatoire, working in different choirs of Saint-Petersburg. Some of us are also soloists at musical theatres of our city. Though the members of our community represent different musical professions: choir conductors, opera singers, instrumentalists, music teachers - we are all united by love for choir and ensemble singing. The choir community “LYRA” includes about 25 people. However, due to different difficulties connected with the arrangement of concerts for such a numerous group, we usually perform in small groups of soloists consisting of 5-6 people, trying to keep the harmony of choir sound. In 2001 we were awarded the Montreux (Switzerland) international choral festival diploma. In 2005 our group was also a winner of Coleraine International Choral Festival (Northern Ireland).

Repertoire

The main goal of LYRA`s activity is exploring and popularizing Russian choir music. Through our performances, we want to introduce enormous musical heritage of the Russian Orthodox Church, as well as traditions of Russian folk music to all people who are interested in Russia, its history and culture.

The field of our creative interests is quite diverse. In a wide range of time we represent examples of Russian sacred music, starting from ancient songs of the Orthodox Church to works of little-known, but remarkable composers of the XVIII-XX centuries, as well as famous masters - D. Bortnjansky, P. Tchaikovsky, P. Tchesnokov, A. Gretchaninov, S. Rakhmaninov, I. Stravinsky and others. We perform different folk songs of lyric, dancing and ritual nature in the arrangements of great choir music masters. We also make our own arrangements of folk songs. Secular songs of Russian classics, such as S. Taneev, P. Tchaikovsky, S Rakhmaninov and others represent another side of our creative activity. Our repertoire includes also programs consisting of songs, romances and arias from operas by Russian as well as foreign composers.

Other information

As we consider our community was established in 1994, when we appeared with the first concerts. Since then geography of our performances has become pretty wide. We perform not only in Russia, but also outside it. Thanks to the friends who help us arrange trips, we regularly give concerts in the countries of Western Europe - Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Holland, Great Britain, Ireland and Sweden. We also make annual concert trips around the USA.

In a new initiative, the National Youth Orchestra of Wales will run a composers programme alongside this summer’s NYOW residency. Successful applicants will receive tuition in compositional techniques, instrumental writing and analysis of existing repertoire, all delivered by Mark Bowden (Composer in Residence with BBC NOW).

Full details and an application form are attached and can also be downloaded from www.nyaw.co.uk or the NYOW Facebook page.

The deadline is 22 May with auditions taking place on Saturday 8 June in Cardiff and Sunday 9 June in Wrexham.

If you have any questions contact us ASAP via email at nyaw@nyaw.co.uk or phone 02920 265 060. Please also forward this information on to any budding composers who might be interested.

Young brass musicians have always had the extraordinary benefit of community brass bands working in tandem with local music support services to develop and inspire. The fantastic work done by the brass band movement in nurturing talent is unparalleled in other spheres of music making. However it is this community aspect CSW hopes to emulate in order to provide further experience and performance opportunities for Wind Orchestra musicians.

David Childs, Artistic Director of Cardiff Symphonic Winds and Musical Director of the Cardiff County and Vale of Glamorgan Youth Wind Orchestra commented, “Community based music making and County supported tuition contributed hugely to my development as a young musician and proved inspirational in my decision to study music in higher education and pursue it professionally as a career. My hope is that Cardiff Symphonic Winds will help provide inspiration for our young wind and percussion players in South Wales, as well as raise awareness for the tremendous work local Music Support Services have been doing for so many years. It is a tribute to their success that so many musicians in CSW are either teachers from, or products of these invaluable Music Services. ”

Cardiff Symphonic Winds will launch in spectacular fashion on May 18th with an inaugural concert at the Principality’s premiere music education establishment, the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama. Philip Cobb, Principal Trumpet with the London Symphony Orchestra will be joining CSW on stage as their star guest soloist. Having closed the 2012 Olympics in front of a worldwide audience of millions, not to mention starring on film soundtracks such as Harry Potter, Philip is quite rightly regarded as one of the world’s finest brass soloists. With popular music from Holst to Shostakovich and Eric Whitacre to John Williams, the evening is sure to be a night to remember for all involved. Thanks to the generous support of the Buffet Wind Group, RWCMD and Newport based Ev-entz; all proceeds from this concert will be donated to local Music Support Services.

David Childs concluded, “We appreciate any money raised by our concert will be a mere drop in the ocean compared to the hundreds of thousands of pounds currently being lost in music education. However, by coming together as musicians we are showing our support for this cause in the most meaningful way we can, and at the same time creating an ensemble to benefit future generations of wind and percussion musicians in Wales.”

…………………Box office link for the concert's ticket sales: https://tickets.rwcmd.ac.uk/index.php?option=com_tessitura_bridge&task=booktickets&perf_code=39713&Itemid=8

PONTYPOOL MALE CHOIR

50th Anniversary Year 1963 - 2013

We are an award winning traditional Welsh male voice choir which was formed in 1963 to entertain and raise money for charity. The choir has enjoyed past performances at the Royal Albert Hall, National Stadium Of Wales and various Welsh Eisteddfods. We have a diverse repertoire of music ranging from traditional Welsh songs and hymns, folk, theatre and modern day chart topping hits.

Like many other choirs throughout Wales, we have been battling to preserve the old choral customs. The rising age of some of our singers has become a concern. It is inevitable that a choir will lose some of it's older members to ill health etc and unfortunately last year our numbers took a sharp decline to less than sixteen members.

Recently, we have been successful in attracting some younger new blood into the choir and at the moment we have approximately twenty three choristers. With our on going recruitment drive using local tabloid newspapers and social media sites like facebook and twitter, we are hoping to raise the choir to about thirty members for our 50th Anniversary concert in October.

We aim to eradicate the stigma that joining a choir is for 'old people' and as opposed to many other choirs who rehearse twice weekly, we only meet up once a week for practice. The reason for this is to help dismiss the malaise of ‘not enough time to sing in a choir’, as we fully appreciate young men tend to lead busy social lives outside of work and educational studies.

I hope Gwent Music Support Service would consider helping Pontypool Male Choir’s recruitment drive by encouraging your male music students from the age of 14 years plus, to come along and join us. We are not looking for particularly good singers, just males who have lots of enthusiasm and drive to help carry the choir forward into a new era. As well as playing a vital role in entertaining and raising money for worthy charitable causes within Torfaen, by joining us, your students could also play a key part in preserving Welsh heritage and culture. They can make a real contribution and the benefits from singing are immense - these include improvement of social skills, team work, aiding learning ability and most importantly exercise!! Music is known to help increase lung capacity, reduce blood pressure and relieve stress!!

Yours sincerely,

Mark Pitt

PONTYPOOL MALE CHOIR PUBLICITY AND RECRUITMENT MANAGER

Music for Youth, supported by the Vivendi Create Joy Fund, is launching an exciting new Young Artist Development Programme at our National Festival Birmingham 2013. This programme is for young musicians between the ages of 14 and 21 to develop their musical writing style through working with a professional musician, collaborating with other young performers and having their piece performed in public on a national stage at some point during the Music for Youth season.We are particularly interested in musicians working in a jazz, traditional, world, rock, pop and urban style.

There is further information available at:

• Description: www.mfy.org.uk/downloads/2013/young_artist_description.pdf
• Application form: www.mfy.org.uk/downloads/2013/YADP_Application_form.docx

It would be greatly appreciated if you could circulate this to any young composers or songwriters within your networks.

If you have any queries about the Young Artist Development Programme or the application process, please do not hesitate to call me directly on 020 7759 1837.

Best wishes,
Dearbhaile.