Cefn Hengoed Ladies' Choir

Lynne Hopkins - Soprano

2012-03-04T03:22:00.001-08:00

Over the months I will be highlighting choir members and their reasons for singing and their interests and hobbies and what they get out of singing in a choir.

Our first one, or guinea pig, is Lynne Hopkins. Lynne has led a very interesting and varied life and has travelled to lots of different places. As you can imagine music has always been a part of her life as from the age of 5 she started playing the piano accordion, and has also learnt to play the piano, viola and guitar and at the age of 17 she won the Championship of Wales on the accordion.

Lynne was a teacher and tought in Wales, Birmingham and Hertfordshire where she married and had a family. Music was her main subject whilst teaching and was a co-ordinator in the schools and produced performances such as Oliver, Joseph, Mary Poppins etc.

During this period in her life she joined the Aston Ladies Choir which performed with Stevenage Male Voice choir and local theatre groups.

In 1995 Lynne and her family moved to France where she joined a mixed choir in Bose-Le-hard, this certainly improved her French! When they returned to Wales in 2002 Lynne looked around for another choir to perform in and as luck would have it she joined the Cefn Hengoed Ladies Choir, where she received such a warm welcome. Lynne has made many new friends and has lots of fun on a Thursday evening organising the raffle, she is very good at getting money out of us! As they say the rest is history.

Grand St. David's Day Concert

2012-03-02T05:15:00.001-08:00

Last night we participated in a St. Davids Concert at Heolddu Comprehensive, Bargoed. All the proceeds went in aid of the Mayor's Charity.

The concert started off with members of the Heolddu Chamber Choir, they sang Seasons of Love - Jonathan Larson, Yma o hyd - Dafydd Iwan, Lean on me - Bill Withers arranged by Mark De-Lisser. All of our choir thought that they sang beautifully, and so professional! It was great to see a wide age range, and very enthusiastic members of the choir as well. Maybe they would like to join ours in the future.

Next came our turn, we sang Big Spender - Fields & Coleman, Adiemus - Karl Jenkins, May it be - Bhraonain, Ryan 7 Ryan (from Lord of the Rings) Rhythm of life - Fields & Coleman and as an encore Tydi a Roddaist which is traditionally sung by male voice choirs but we give it a good shot! We thoroughly enjoyed our time on stage and had a lot of compliments in the interval.

Next was the Oakdale Silver Band, they played The Golden Lady, The New worlds Largo, A haydhn's melody and Lord of the Dance. It was also great to see a wide age range with this band, nice seeing that younger members are so enthusiastic, there was family members taking part with a brother and sister soloist part in the second half of the concert. After the interval they played Men of Harlech, Calon Lan, All through the Night and Castle Caerphilly. Another very professional and polished performance and great to watch.

After the interval was Cambrian Male Voice choir, they sung Let all men sing - Keith Christopher, Yr Anthem Geltaidd - D. Iwan D. Elfin Thomas, Pan fo'r Nos yn Hir - Ryan Davies, Finnan Haddie - Vijay Sing, Brim him home - Schoenberg, Stout Hearted Men - Romberg, Anthem - arr. Nicholas, Gwahoddiad - arr. J. Tudor Davies. A very entertaining performance especially Finnan Haddie where there was some cross dressing involved!

We were very pleased to be asked to come back and perform there again sometime, and we had the opportunity to sell some of our cds of one of our concerts to members of the public. We look forward to another time when we can return to Heolddu Comprehensive, Bargoed.

St David's Day Concert

2012-02-24T06:22:00.000-08:00

Next weeks concert will be held at Heol Ddu Comprehensive School in Bargoed. Its in aid of the Mayors Charity on Thursday 1st March at 6.30pm. Beside's us at the concert there will also be The Cambrian Male Voice Choir, Oakdale Silver Band and Heolddu Comprehensive School Choir performing.
Tickets are just £4 and available from Heolddu Comprehensive School during term time from 13th February onwards, hope to see you all there.

We have been rehearsing steadily as usual for this concert and our main concert in September. I will be featuring various members of our choir and showcasing their talents. I will be stating why they joined the choir, why they like etc.. so keep your eyes peeled for any more information.

Sad News

2012-02-05T01:21:00.000-08:00

Sadly, the Choir lost a very dear choir member, Glenys Lippiett, who was renowned for the beautiful poems that she wrote and performed at concerts with the Choir.The Choir supported her throughout her illness and sang for her in her hospital room and then, sadly, at her funeral. Goodall`s "The Lord is my Shepherd" was a special request from Glenys and the Choir sang it with great feeling for their wonderful friend.

The Choir is very proud of its age range within the Choir, from 15 to 88. It is a proven fact that choral singing keeps the mind active and healthy well into "old age" and the Choir is proof of this. We have warmly welcomed the many new, younger members into the Choir, for they are the future of the Choir. Year 2012 will be the 65th year of the existence of the Choir and they are currently working extremely hard and having fun with preparing for a Gala Concert to celebrate this milestone in the history of the Choir, on Saturday, December 29th, 2012.

The Choir will perform at a concert on March 1st at Heolddu School, Bargoed

New Year

2012-01-19T08:03:00.000-08:00

Well its a brand new year, 2012, and this year is one of the most exciting we are gonna have. Firstly, rehearsals are back under way, every Thursdays as usual.

Our next concert is going to be Friday 23rd March at the Gilfach Working Mens Club, where we will be singing a selection of our favourite songs. Time to be confirmed yet so check out our website for further details.

Vivaldi

Also, in September we have a GRAND concert, with an orchestra and guest artists for our 65th Anniversary. Its gonna be a lot of FUN but in the meantime a lot of practicing and rehearsal to get Vivaldi's Gloria sounding amazing. We have been working through the piece and we have nearly completed most of it, just a lot of finessing and practising to get it sounded perfect.

Stay tuned here for more updates and for more information about our concerts.

Christmas Party 2011

2011-12-04T05:01:00.001-08:00

Our Christmas party was held last Friday (2nd) where lots of food and drink were provided and we had a good old Karaoke party as well. Once the wine started flowing we had a great time, lots of people got up to have a sing-a-long to the Karaoke.

Tina Turner has entered the building!

We had lots of different songs sung, from Christmas ones, to Mamma Mia, Adele and Tina Turner!

Videos have been posted onto our YouTube channel, please have a look at http://www.youtube.com/user/CefnHengoedChoir

On here you can view lots of videos that were taken on this night, and from other events. There is a compilation of photos set to some christmassy music on there as well.

Our next appearance is at Asda's in Blackwood, 15th December 7.30pm will be lovely to see lots of you there!!

Ystrad Mynach Christmas Fayre

2011-11-27T05:48:00.001-08:00

This years Christmas Fayre was better attended than last year, partly due to the weather! No snow this time so we could all make it for a good ole sing song!

Before hand we all agreed to meet at the The Beech Tree pub, for a bit of dutch courage and a warm up. We decided to sing one of our songs there to spread some Christmas cheer! We certainly livened up their lunch time, which was great fun.

When it was time we walked down to the stage area and as you can see we barely fitted onto the stage but it was very rousing, we had a great crowd and not too bad weather, better than last year anyway.

We sang Jingle Bells, Alleluia, May It Be, Rhythm of Life, Irish Carol and Torches.

We all felt really Christmassy afterwards. Even the crowd joined in afterwards.

Our next song fest will be at Asda's in Blackwood on the 15th December, 7.30pm. We hope to raise some funds for our 65th Anniversary extravaganza next year!

So, please pop along and see us, if you want to join our band of merry women we welcome any new member and there is no audition. So if you love singing and like a fun evening then come along.
Check out our website for more details www.cefnhengoedladieschoir.org

Ystrad Mynach Christmas Fayre 26th November

2011-10-22T06:10:00.000-07:00

Our next appearance will be at Ystrad Mynach Christmas Fayre, yes I know no-one likes to thing about these things but it is only 9 weeks to go!! The fayre is on the 26th November (Saturday) outside Siloh Chapel, there are activities and stalls there selling Christmas goodies and we are appearing at 4pm.
Therefore we are rehearsing lots of Christmas songs from Jingle Bells to an Irish Carol, also Torches and Do you hear what I hear? so pop along for some festive spirit.
I'm assured there will be mulled wine there so if that doesn't tempt you I don't know what will!!
We only hope the weather is better than last year as the snow stopped many of our choir attending the event but we had a few brave souls who tried their best despite the freezing temperatures.

There is still time if you would like to join our choir and still lots of places left too!! check out our website for more info.

See you soon

2011-10-01T08:23:00.000-07:00

Well rehearsals are well under way now and we are now following a timetable in order for each section to learn Gloria a bit at a time, slowly we are getting there! some bits are harder to learn than others but isn't that always the way!

There have been some changes to our choir in recent weeks though, sadly our accompanist Mairwen has retired and our choir will miss her greatly!! However, we have been joined by Philip May who is studying his post grad with the RCWMD, and he seemed to enjoy his first night, which was a baptism by fire!!!

We are going to be learning some christmas songs for a concert in Ystrad Mynach for their christmas festivities, no firm date as of yet but I will keep you posted! Last year many of us couldn't attend due to the bad weather conditions so we are hoping this year that the weather will be better at this time.

Rehearsals continue....

2011-09-15T08:12:00.000-07:00

We have started rehearsals again, why not pop along and join us!! They are from 7pm - 9pm at Derwendeg Primary and we have a lot of fun. We are currently learning Gloria by Vivaldi, affectionately called Viv by us all now. This piece is for our big concert on the 29th Sept. 2012 where we are celebrating 65yrs of being a choir. Check out our website for more info.
In addition to this we are learning Fever, complete with clicking fingers and a solo part by Christine Pittwood, who cracks us up every time with her Nessa impressions!!!
To complete the gospel theme we are learning a Gospel medley, which includes Go down, moses, Oh, Happy Day and Ain't no mountain high enough. Its great to be able to sing a bit of gospel and I think we should include some gowns and definately clapping will be involved.
Over the next few weeks we shall be learning some Christmas songs ready for some concerts and outdoor singing, weather permitting this year! Last year many of our members couldn't get to the venue due to the snow and bad driving conditions. Hopefully this will be better this year.
We have had another new member, and we always welcome more!!! We always need sopranos, as well as 2nd Sopranos, there is no auditions unlike x-factor just turn up, sit down, and have a great sing along. If you want to find out more contact our secretary Mary Hougham for more details, Check out our website for the contact numbers.
Cefn Hengoed Ladies Choir website

Ystrad Mynach Fun Day 2011

2011-07-24T08:23:00.000-07:00

Ystrad Mynach Fun Day 2011

This year we performed at the Ystrad Mynach Fun Day for our last performance before the summer hols.
For a change the sun was shining and there were loads of people there.
We had a stall selling books and our cds, £5 and we gave out lots of our leaflets so hopefully this will encourage more new members in September to join.

We sung a selection of songs, the picture is of us performing Big Spender, and we all had a lot of fun. We had a guest artist, Jasper Bell, aged 6, who performed the theme tune from Dr Who on his violin and he was brilliant, very confident for a six year old to play in front of all those people!! He did brilliantly.

Summer Concert Review by Ceridwen

2011-07-21T05:53:00.001-07:00

The Choir continued its tradition of giving a yearly concert in aid of the Derwendeg School, the school where they were started in 1947 and where they continue to practice ever since. The Choir enjoy very much this concert, because it maintains its link with the School, the Head Teacher, Miss Lorraine Hunter being the current President of the Choir. The School also provides entertainment provided by the children of Derwendeg and this year they gave excerpts from their School production of "Blasts from the Past" a musical they had just performed for the end of term, which had the audience and choir howling with laughter and lots of applause. Many in the audience were mothers, grandparents of the children and members of the Choir who had children and grandchildren performing in the School Choir. The guest artist for the concert was Andrina, an operatic singer, colleague of the Musical Director, Jayne, who entertained the audience with songs from "Showboat" and various operatic arias. The Choir gave her a standing ovation at the end of her performance. Also, thanks to Andrina, the Choir sang the "Rhythm of Life", a popular piece with the audience, ending with the very high "Top C" on the very last note.It was amazing!!."

We had a lot of fun at this concert and it looks very likely that a few members of the audience might well join us after the Summer break."

Summer Concert

2011-07-15T08:51:00.000-07:00

We had our annual summer concert the other night at Derwendeg Primary, where we rehearse, and we all had a great time.

We had a few guest artists, and it was nice to have a great turnout as the weather was really sunny outside. Our artists were children from the school, and a soprano from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Andrina Vrcic.

We had renditions from the children on the violin, and they gave great performances despite most of them having only learned to play from last September. After the interval we had a selection of songs which were very funny to say the least. We were all rofl after hearing "Six of the Best" which was a parody of headmasters learning to cane children from the "Olden" days, I have never laughed so much!!!! Clearly there are some very talented children at this school.

Our Soloist, Andrina, also stole the show with her selection of songs. First, a folk song - She moved thro' the fair followed by Gershwin's Summertime. After the interval we listened to Can't help lovin that man and Time to say Goodbye, which is one of my all time favs. Such a powerful voice to come out of such a petite lady! We are overjoyed that she is going to sing at our 65th Anniversary next year.

Of course, we also sung a selection of songs and were complemented on our singing. Only one more performance now before our summer break. So come along to the Ystrad Mynach Fun Day to catch us singing!
We always welcome new members.

Rehearsals for next Concert

2011-07-09T08:15:00.000-07:00

Rehearsals are going well for the next concert which is going to be on Thursday 14th July at Derwendeg Primary, Cefn Hengoed at 7pm £3 entry for adults, children free. We have a soprano singing as well, who sounds amazing!!!
We have been practising our most popular songs, as well as plugging away on our major piece of work Vivaldi's Gloria which we will be performing next year.

www.cefnhengoedladieschoir.org.uk/home.html

St Peters Church Event

2011-07-09T07:11:00.000-07:00

On 19th May 2011 we performed at St Peter’s RC Church in Bargoed. There was a lovely relaxed atmosphere and everyone had a great time. The Mayoress was in attendence along with several members of the congregation. Apart from the choir singing a selection of songs, we also had a pianist, Philip May from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, and he played various pieces of classical music and everyone agreed that he was a very talented pianist.
Check out some of our music and videos on our website www.cefnhengoedladieschoir.org.uk/home.html