Welsh Male Choir draws record audience

The original church program from 1927 will be featured at the “Christmas Memories” candlelight service to be held on Sunday, December 16 at 513 Main Road, in Hudson.

It was a joyous celebration for the congregation who packed the 300-seat church pews to hear the 20-member male choir in “A Yuletide Celebration in Music, Song and Story”. There were readings were from: “A Child’s Christmas In Wales” by Dylan Thomas; “Starry Night” by Rick Book; “The Boy Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening & The Pasture” by Robert Frost; “Starry Night” by Rick Brook; “The Boy Who Laughed at Santa Claus” by Ogden Nash; and, “A Child’s Christmas in Scarborough” by Howard Engel. The Montreal Welsh Male Choir calls itself “The Keeper of the Flame”. Since its founding in 1961, it continues to preserve the Welsh choral tradition, while at the same time entertaining audiences with choral works from other cultures and traditions. Colleen Walsh is the choir director and Michael Shannon is the accompanist.

When they come together to make music, the Welsh sing the traditional songs, not in unison, as is done elsewhere, but in parts, in many modes and modulations.

Wyman’s year-long celebrations have included visits by Jack Layton, NDP leader, who related tales of being a choir boy at Wyman. To honour the memory of Rev. Wyman, the church’s founder, parishioners dressed up in heritage costumes, as the minister, came to a Sunday service in a horse-drawn carriage. Tales of bygone events at the church were dramatized in a play-reading dinner, with the plays both composed and acted by church members.

For information about the choir, call Brian at 450 464-7161 or Henry at 514 630-4360.