AMBASSADORS OF SONG – MADEIRA TOUR APRIL 2025

Côr Meibion De Cymru, along with partners and friends of the choir, enjoyed a highly successful tour to Madeira from 17-24 April 2025. Our presence was eagerly awaited as it seems we were the first Welsh Male Voice Choir to perform on the Island. Madeira offered an excellent blend of singing and leisure activities, with plenty of opportunities to take in the colourful markets, fishing villages, open-top bus tours, soak up the sun, go walking in the island’s spectacular scenery, or experience the famous Madeira toboggan!
 
Our opening concert to fellow guests at the Lido Enotel was followed by an open-air concert at the Madeira Ritz, hosted by the proprietress, Cardiff-born Siân Lesley.
 
Performing to a near-capacity audience at Funchal’s Holy Trinity Church brought the first of two standing ovations. Holy Trinity’s Reverend Twiddy was reportedly delighted to hear the Choir perform his composition, Archangels and Seraphim.
 
A final concert at the Legislative Assembly Building with the Madeira Mandolin Orchestra, Coro Lux Aeterna, and the Calheta choir, arguably produced the most memorable performance of the tour, showcasing Welsh passion, sensitivity, and power in equal measure, and was rewarded by a second standing ovation. The Welsh items were audience favourites, along with We Rise Again (which left some audience members close to tears). The ever-popular Nessun Dorma also delighted the audience and earned loud and enthusiastic applause. Our Portuguese hosts were equally delighted when we joined them in singing the Portuguese National Anthem to draw the evening to a close.
 
No visit to Madeira would be complete without sampling a few glasses of Madeira and, in addition to the concerts, there was plenty of socializing and numerous spontaneous outbursts of irrepressible Welsh singing!
 
Huge thanks go to tour organizers, Andy Adams and Peter Oliver, and to our superb music team headed by Musical Director Elaine Robins and Principal Accompanist Siân Davies.
 
For the tour, we were joined by some choristers from other choirs acting as trailblazers for our new Associate Chorister scheme which invites members of other choirs to join us on tour or for big events, whilst remaining with their own choirs. If your choir finds it difficult to tour or stage big events, please feel free to contact us to ask about our Associate scheme.
 
Written by Guy Edwards
Photo by Lesley Cleary
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Photo: Côr Meibion De Cymru outside the Madeira Ritz with proprietress, Siân Lesley.