Hong Kong Welsh Male Voice Choir
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The Hong Kong Welsh Male Voice Choir celebrated its silver jubilee in 2003/04, having been founded in 1978. Wales is known worldwide as “The Land of Song” and singing is an inseparable part of Welsh culture. Almost every small town and village in Wales has a choir of some kind. Some are rightly world famous, like the Treorchy, others are less well known, but nevertheless provide a musical outlet for Welsh male energy. Overseas, Welshmen are known for their predictable behaviour: one Welshman will start a chapel, two a committee, three an exiles’ group and four a choir. Hong Kong is no exception to this rule. Although its founders were Welsh, today's Hong Kong Welsh Male Voice Choir truly reflects the city’s cosmopolitan nature, its ranks include a number of local Chinese members as well as expatriates from some 12 different countries.
Many of them long-term Hong Kong residents who have established families and businesses here. about half of the choir’s 70 current members can still claim Welsh roots, thus maintaining its fine traditions and enabling it to include many popular Welsh language songs in its repertoire.
Over the years, the choir has established a fine reputation for the quality of its performances. The legendary former Welsh rugby player Cliff Morgan, who is also President of the London Welsh Choir, commented during a recent visit that the Hong Kong choir not only matched the very best for quality. but also showed the most exemplary spirit.
The choir appears regularly at events as diverse as the St David’s Society Ball and the Hong Kong Folk Festival, as well as staging its own popular show once a year. It has also entertained guests on visiting cruise ships and receives annual invitations to perform in Thailand and Vietnam, usually singing on board the flights as well as at the overseas concerts themselves! And at Christmas time, the choir is much in demand for carol concerts at different venues around town.
In their daily working lives, the choir members have as diverse a range of backgrounds as their nationalities; they include members of the judiciary, bankers, teachers, lawyers, writers, engineers, policemen, consultants and students. However, the one thing that binds them is that they all love to sing, and are quite likely to break into song at every available opportunity.
