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St David’s date for choirmaster Gareth and his Voices tour


FOLLOWING a successful nationwide tour in 2014 Gareth Malone has an- nounced his second even bigger tour with his choir ‘Voices’. Early in 2013 Gareth be-


gan a UK-wide hunt with Decca Records to find the country’s most talented young singers to form a new youth choir. This culminated in Gareth Malone’s Voices, his most personal album yet, em- bodying his vision of the future of choral music. 2014 was another memo- rable year for Gareth who was involved in two very different projects com- memorating the cente- nary of World War One. The Big Performance for CBBC culminated with a performance at St Sym- phorien and Gareth con- ducted his first ever Prom with the Military Wives Choir alongside perform- ers from War Horse. Plus along with his All Star Choir, Gareth reached number one with this


year’s Children in Need single ‘Wake Me Up’. Gareth first appeared on


TV in the three-part BBC documentary series The Choir in 2006. The series saw Gareth take the chal- lenge of bringing music into the lives of students who had never sung be- fore and taking them to compete in the World Choir Games in China. Following series two,


The Choir: Boys Don’t Sing, Gareth’s third series The Choir: Unsung Town saw him attempt to unite the community of South Oxhey near Watford as a choir. The fourth series of The Choir aired in No- vember 2011. In his most emotional challenge to date, The Choir: Military Wives, saw Gareth give a voice to the wives and girl- friends left behind at the Chivenor and Plymouth barracks when troops were deployed to Afghani- stan. The hit single from the series, Wherever You Are, was a resounding


success, making Christ- mas number one in 2011, and the choir’s album, In My Dreams, went to num- ber one in March 2012. A second album, Stronger Together, was released in November 2012. Gareth also released the official Diamond Jubilee song Sing composed by Gary Barlow and performed by The Military Wives Choir. Gareth’s next TV pro-


ject, Sing While You Work, saw him infiltrate the work place to get four large UK companies sing- ing as choirs. Since 2006, the successful series have led to seven BAFTA nomi- nations, winning two suc- cessive BAFTA awards and two RTS awards.


l Gareth Malone and


Voices UK tour will visit Cardiff’s St David’s Hall on December 14 with tick- ets at £25.00/£37.50/£45.00. www.gigsandtours.com /


0844 811 0051 www.ticketmaster.co.uk / 0844 826 2826


In The Spotlight


THE ‘Thousand Voices’, an annual event in which the massed ranks of numerous male choirs sing at The Royal Albert Hall, is what might be described as a ‘Marmite’ event – you either love it or you hate


Library’s poemtalk


Risca Library will be host- ing a poetry performance by Costa Prize Winner 2014 Jonathan Edwards on April 23. The writer will be reading extracts from his book My Family and Other Superhe- roes from 6pm. There will also be readings


from Matthew Plumb. Tick- ets for this event are free and available at librisca@caer- philly.gov.uk or 01443 864780.


it. Detractors would probably describe it as a triumph of quantity over quality – an op- portunity for choirs that pos- sess insufficient quality in their own right to join other similar choirs in an evening where subtlety and attention to detail are forgotten in fa- vour of a feast of what I once heard referred to as ‘can belto’ (sic.) singing. On the other hand its sup-


porters (and there are many of them) see it as the ulti- mate celebration of the joy of singing – a wonderful sound conjuring up much of the fer- vour of the Arms Park of old within the more controlled environment of a concert situ- ation. Thunderous amens that send a shiver up the spine and serve to remind one that ‘noth- ing sounds quite like a (Welsh ) male voice choir’. Myexperience of the massed choir phenomenon was col- oured many years ago when I was involved in a number of


such projects – both in prepar- ing my own choir and, on an- other occasion, in conducting a massed choir. If I am honest it was not my happiest expe- rience. In particular the con- ducting of the massed voices bore more resemblance to conducting a bus than a choir – and a very large and cumber- some bus at that. Many of the choirs were quite unprepared and did not know the material ; getting them to follow the most ba- sic instructions required the most exaggerated of gestures and even then you were lucky if two thirds of the choir actu- ally responded. It all felt a bit like directing traffic in the rush hour. I recently watched the high- lights of this year’s festival when it was broadcast over Easter.It was the first time I’d heard it in years and I must start by saying that the con- ductor, Edward Rhys-Harry, achieved a far more nuanced


ON TOUR: Gareth Malone By


GERAINT DAVIES


Mass choirs are subtle as a heavy metal band


Do you have a Theatre


performance than used to be the case in these affairs with some unanimity of phrasing and dynamic contrast. Clearly some hard work had gone into the preparation even though much of the musical choice was predictable with its stand- ard fare of hymn tunes and the tiresomely ubiquitous ‘American Trilogy’. One could hardly help play-


ing the game of ‘spot the mimer’(not miner) as there would be plenty of singers who had little more than a passing aquaintance with the words. There was also still the sense that each piece consist- ed of a few opening verses that served no purpose other than to build up to a final earth- shattering climax. The final chord would always be main- tained until it was interrupted by furious audience applause. But then no-one ever claimed


that massed choirs aimed for musical subtlety – any more than a heavy metal concert.


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Review


Man To Man Wales Millennium Centre


A SURREAL mix of history and fantasy with inventive stag- ing sums up Man to Man at the Wales Millennium Centre. This English adaptation of a


Germanplay tells an intriguing story about a woman who takes on her husband’s identity when he dies in order to keep his job. Actress Margaret Ann Bain


is the sole star of the piece, de- livering an hour-long stream of consciousness, retelling her life from the Second World War to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Her performance was flawless


– she convincingly portrayed interaction with other char- acters, her body highlighting every word. As the piece progressed, the


set took on a life of its own in four dimensions – with trap- doors and different levels leav- ing you wondering where the character was going to end up. Ella impresses how hiding


leaves her a lonely figure. It’s a very dense piece of theatre, using a mixture of rhyme and fragments of song. This is sadly where the play occasionally comes unstuck. I must admit that in places I lost the narrative and it wasn’t al- ways clear, from one moment to the next, what part of the story we were being presented. It was a shame, given how impressive the set design and what an energetic performer Margaret Ann Bain is, bringing Ella’s imagination to life. Hayley Mills


5 Culture


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