Bridgend Male Choir at Palma Cathedral.

TW
0

The 80-strong Bridgend Male Choir’s fundraising tour of Majorca reached its climax on Friday when people from all nationalities filled Palma Cathedral for their final concert.

The organising team - Kate Mentink, the Rotary Club, Adrian Elkinson, Calvia Lions, Edward Ingram, the Anglican Church and Suzanne Lyons - were on hand to introduce the choir and express their deepest thanks on behalf of Majorca for the money the choir has raised for local charities since they arrived and began performing around the island on Wednesday.

Gareth Davis, the Choir Master, who addressed the audience in his best Spanish, much to the delight of the multinational crowd, told the Bulletin that the tour had been a great success. "It’s been fantastic, we’ve had great feedback and been made very welcome, we can’t wait to come back. We’re all retired and amateur singers but we take it very seriously and try to be as professional as we can. We’re Welsh, so singing is in our blood, it’s part of our upbringing, our culture. We all come from a chapel background and school, and youth choirs are still as strong as ever in Wales which is great.

"You know what they say. Put four Welshmen in the corner and you’ve got a choir. We’ve raised over one million euros for charity over the past 60 years and we’ve won a number of the top awards in Wales and overseas. We’ve toured extensively, all over Europe and even as far as Canada and now we’re coming up to our busiest part of the year - the festive season. And it’s been extra special because we included a song in commemoration of a late benefactor Graham cuckoo Philips."

Gareth and his colleagues cover all their travel expenses so every euro raised goes to the designated charities. Before the concert began, he presented a representative from the Cathedral with a special pennant as a sign of gratitude for all the support the church has provided and another pennant to Humphrey Carter of the Majorca Daily Bulletin as a sign of thanks for all the backing the newspaper has given the choir and its cause.