As part of its response to the restrictions imposed around the COVID-19 pandemic, Zoomberry Virtual Choir from the United States, led by Patricia Norton, took to Zoom to arrange an online choral programme. One part of that was to following the footsteps of Côr ABC and Côr Dinas in singing yn un rhith. A documentary about their choral programme is being premièred at 21:00 BST (16:00 EST) on 18 July 2021 on YouTube, and will feature a performance of yn un rhith.
On New Year’s Eve, 2020, yn un rhith – a choir still won an highly commended award in the ‘Lockdown project – choir’ category of the Classical Music Digital Awards 2020. This live-streamed event celebrated the efforts of classical music practitioners and organisations to respond positively to the challenges of 2020, and shone a light on numerous digital music projects and innovations, whilst raising money for Help Musicians.
We are delighted to have received this award, and that a project inspired by the efforts of two community choirs to support and keep their members singing together has received this recognition.
On World Mental Health Day 2020, Côr ABC presented £500 to meddwl.org, a volunteer-run website providing information on mental health issues through the medium of Welsh.
The sum was raised from the sale of prints of artwork by artist Sioned Glyn commissioned by Côr ABC and Côr Dinas in relation to their yn un rhith virtual choir project to perform a new piece of the same name by composer, Andrew Cusworth, who set an englyn by crowned bard, Dafydd John Pritchard.
Gwennan Williams, conductor of Côr ABC said: “We were due to take part in a concert in support of the Meddwl website back in June and, since that concert had to be cancelled due to the pandemic, we are very pleased to present this sum raised through our lockdown project to the website at this challenging time.
“The virtual choir project and our weekly virtual rehearsals have been an important lifeline for many of us in recent months, and it is fitting that the choir has chosen to support a voluntary organisation providing much-needed mental health resources in Welsh through its lockdown activities.”
Composer and project leader, Andrew Cusworth, added: “One of the many reasons that we sing in choirs is for the positive effect it has on our mental health. During the lockdown, choirs had to find new ways of continuing to gather not only for musical reasons but for social and community ones, and as a means of raising the spirits of their members, staying in touch, and looking out for one another.“On World Mental Health Day, we are reminded again of the importance of music in our lives and in our wellbeing. The donation to the Meddwl website resonates with the aims and outcomes of our project, which we have now opened up to other choirs to enable them to produce their own virtual performances of the piece while restrictions continue.”
To thank the creative team for their work on the project, Côr ABC and Côr Dinas commissioned an artwork by the artist, Sioned Glyn. With Dafydd’s englyn at the heart of the work, Sioned created a triptych – three landscape scenes connecting Aberystwyth and London, with the separate scenes, like the choirs, creating a single work of art.
The original artworks were recently presented to the members of the creative team, and prints of the individual scenes are now available to order through the choir: A4 at a cost of £30 each and A5 at a cost of £20 each, with both prices including mounts. For more information or to order a print, please contact the choirs by the 24th of August 2020.
We’ve recorded and released our performance of the piece. Now it’s your turn to record it with your own choirs!
As of today, all of the resources we used for our yn un rhith project have been made freely available on this website for all choirs to use to produce their own virtual performances, including sheet music, videos to learn and sing with, guidance on recording, the accompaniment track, and warm-ups.
There are two versions of the piece – one for mixed voices and one for upper voices.
The piece is suitable for mixed choirs, youth choirs, and upper voices.
Today, yn un rhith was featured on the facebook page of Choral Stream, the choral music radio station of Minnesota Public Radio.
The performance of yn un rhith by the combined choir of Côr ABC and Côr Dinas will today feature in a programme of virtual events hosted by BroAber360, a community website for north Ceredigion.
Tune in at 17:15 BST this afternoon to watch!
BroAber360.cymru
We are delighted to hear that the Borough Welsh Chapel, London, will play the performance of yn un rhith by the combined choirs of Côr ABC and Côr Dinas during its service tomorrow.
In normal times, Côr Dinas rehearses at the Borough Welsh Chapel and regularly sings in its services. We are pleased that the choir is able, alongside Côr ABC, to sing at one of its virtual services during this time.
Last Friday, we premièred the first performance of yn un rhith by the combined choirs of Côr ABC and Côr Dinas, but both choirs have also sung, separately, mixed choir and upper voices versions of the piece.
We are delighted that these separate performances have now also been released on the choirs’ YouTube channels:
Côr ABC – mixed choir version of yn un rhith
Côr Dinas – upper voices version of yn un rhith
A heartfelt thank you to everyone who joined us on YouTube last night for the first performance of yn un rhith,and thank you for such a warm response.
We are delighted that people from the across the world were able to join with us to experience the ‘performance’ at the same time, if not in the same place.
Here is a selection of the comments posted on YouTube and Twitter:
‘A beautiful performance.’
‘Absolutely beautiful work by all – well done!’
‘Wonderful, I want to sing now!’
We are looking forward to sharing the first performance of yn un rhith by the combined choir of Côr ABC and Côr Dinas with the world this evening.
Join us at 19:00 BST via the following link:
Today, our project was featured on Radio Cymru when Gwennan Williams appeared on Bore Cothi to discuss the project and the première with Shân Cothi.
Gwennan highlighted the fact that working on the project and singing together, even at a distance, had given the members of the choirs a positive and uplifting focus during a difficult and uncertain period of time.
The project and the première have also featured in articles in local newspapers, including the Cambrian News, the Tenby Observer, the Western Telegraph, and Y Tincer, and on the news website Bro Aber 360.
We are delighted to announce that the first performance of yn un rhith by the combined choir of Côr ABC and Côr Dinas will be released in a YouTube Première event.
We invite members of both choirs, the choirs’ wider communities and everyone interested in our project to join with us to watch the first performance together, albeit apart.
By using YouTube Première to ‘perform’ the distantly recorded piece, we hope to provide a focal point for a coming together of the choirs’ wider communities to experience music together in time if not in the same place.
The piece will be premièred at 19:00 BST on Friday, 22 May 2020, via the following link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HA1ehR1odWA
