CARDIGAN-based choir Côr Teifi and friends presented a gala concert in aid of the Samaritans to a large and appreciative audience in the concert hall at Rhosygilwen on Saturday, June 16.

The choir, under the leadership of music director Henry Ward, and with Jean Smith at the piano, took the lion’s share of the evening with a varied programme of motets, opera choruses, folk song arrangements and part songs, some serious, some light-hearted, some old, some very new.

Music with local connections featured, with a folksong arrangement by Jonathan Copus, whose wife Susie sings in the choir, and a song by bass Brent Wilson, evoking his years in the West Indies.

The generous support of other local musicians, and Georgina Ferry, who read poems by Stevie Smith, broadened the programme still further.

Newcastle Emlyn-based violinist Helen Jefferson joined the choir in a tender arrangement of the lullaby Suo Gân, and followed this with Vaughan Williams’ violin solo ‘The Lark Ascending’.

Local tenor Martin Radley led the choir in Gilbert and Sullivan’s rousing exhortation from ‘The Grand Duke’ to ‘eat a sausage roll’, brandishing an example and demolishing it in style to close the first half of the concert.

Tenor Ben Ridley, from Dolgellau, sang songs by Gareth Glyn and by Robin Milford, a composer of particular relevance to the work of the Samaritans, since sadly, he took his own life.

Baritone David Child, a member of the choir, performed pieces by Roger Quilter.

And sisters Awen and Annest Davies, fresh from the piano duet competition at last month’s Urdd Eisteddfod, made the rafters of the Oak Hall resound to Khachaturian’s Waltz from ‘Masquerade’.

The audience - and the choir - demanded more and got it with a lively performance of ‘Variation on Chopsticks in the Style of Brahms’.

Members of the Pembrokeshire Branch of the Samaritans were available to tell the audience about their work, and trustee Christopher Mill spoke movingly about the increase in their workload and the fear that, as it grows, somebody in urgent need might call and get no answer.

The evening raised their profile and attracted some new volunteers. The Samaritans and the choir are grateful to Glen and Brenda Peters for making the Oak Hall available to them for the evening.

Côr Teifi, formerly called Côr Aberteifi, is a friendly, inclusive, mixed voice choral society, based in Cardigan, with members drawn from the town itself and the surrounding area.

Since its founding in 2016 the choir has given several concerts in Cardigan and at Rhosygilwen.

It has sung Haydn’s Creation, Brahms' Song of Destiny, Mass in D by Dvorak, Duruflé’s Requiem, Tchaikovsky’s opera Eugene Onegin and works by Britten, Schubert, and Kodaly, some with full orchestra.

The choir was especially privileged to perform Beethoven’s Fantasy for piano, vocal soloists, chorus, and orchestra, with renowned pianist Llyr Williams, at Rhosygilwen’s annual Schubertiade last October.

They are delighted to have been asked to perform again at this year’s Schubertiade, in a concert at which Llyr Williams will play Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto.

New members are always welcome. All voices and there is no audition.

Anyone interested can just drop in at one of the choir’s weekly rehearsals,. These are held at 7pm on Mondays in the vestry of Capel Tabernacle (Tabernacle Chapel), Pendre, Cardigan, starting again on September 3.

Alternatively email info@cor-teifi.org.uk. The choir has also a website with more information at cor-teifi.org.uk