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If you would like to leave any comments about the choir please email the address below and your comments will be published in due course: brythoniaid@btinternet.com I wanted to say how much we appreciated listening to the Choir on Thursday. We were quite amazed by the quality of the singing and feel sure you will do very well in the competitions. Please extend our sincere thanks to everyone. I would really like to attend one of your concerts, perhaps you could let me know where and when your performances will be. It really made my week to hear such an outstanding Male Voice Choir, it was pure joy to listen to. With kind regards Janice Ballard My husband Spence and I are writing to send you our heartfelt thanks for this email, with its thorough list of male voice choir rehearsals open to the public, during the days of our trip to north Wales. We are just back in California from a very successful two week visit to the UK, half of the time in Wales. Truly, a highlight of the entire trip was attending a rehearsal of this excellent choir, on Thursday, April 28. What an excellent choir! The singing was beautiful and very moving. We spoke to the conductor, John Eifion Jones, the excellent accompanist, Elizabeth Ellis and quite a few members of the choir. During the first half of the rehearsal, the choir worked on three pieces they will be performing at a competition in the summer. After a break, the choir performed some of their "standards," including an "American medley" that I am sure was chosen for us and one other American couple who were visiting. We loved the evening and will always remember it. I have always dreamed of hearing a Welsh male voice choir. This was a dream come true. Thank you very much. By the way, I am sure there are many visitors to Wales who would enjoy attending a rehearsal. Perhaps you could post on line the rehearsal schedule of the various choirs around Wales, with a note saying that the schedule is subject to change. Kind regards Ruth and Spence Festival No. 6 2015 1. Getintothis magazine. This is a festival full of surprises with something for everyone. It is spectacularly well organised without appearing so. Clean and tidy with excellent facilities, grown up, mature but also young, fresh and fun. Through it all, it remains inherently Welsh and incredibly proud of it (rightly so!), with the Welsh language filling the festival. With not a miserable face in sight, this is a proud county and full of patriots. One lady we encountered draped in a fully sequined Welsh flag gown and looked so fantastic that we felt serious dress and country envy! We could go on for days about the extraordinary Brythoniaid Welsh Male Voice Choir. Their colossal sound soared over the sea of faces that filled The Central Piazza the crowd stood shoulder to shoulder as did the choir, these guys really were the giants of the weekend putting a spin on songs by Elbow and New Order like only The Brythoniaid Welsh Male Voice Choir can. It was a truly magical moment that even the rain that uncharacteristically only made an appearance once couldn’t dampen. Each and every year we rave about the Brythoniaid Welsh Male Voice Choir – and this year was no different; they embody everything that’s special about this patriotic, heart-on-the- sleeve yet fiercely different little festival. 2. Guardian The celestial voices of Festival No 6 stalwarts the Brythoniaid Male Voice Choir made repeat appearances, including soundtracking a production of Under Milk Wood and, on Sunday, dedicating You’ll Never Walk Alone to the Welsh football team. 3. Four traders One of the stars of Festival No 6 once again were Cor y Brythoniaid from Blaenau Ffestiniog. The 50-strong choir were one of the first acts signed up for the inaugural event in 2012 and a fixture ever since. They sang to a packed Central Piazza in the drizzle on Friday and in the sunshine yesterday afternoon. They also played a leading musical role in an adaptation of Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas on Saturday evening. 4. Huw Thomas : BBC Wales Arts and Culture Correspondent. @huwthomas: In Portmeirion @festivalnumber6 continues - Côr y Brythoniaid among the favourites last night http://t.co/PXGV0dyWhn 5. Gig wise News But Festival No.6 is never better than when it delivers the kind of entertainment that you simply wouldn't find anywhere else. The Brythoniaid Male Voice Choir have been a permanent fixture in Portmeirion since the first festival; always drawing huge and emotionally charged crowds to the Central Piazza. Traditional Welsh battle songs such as Men of Harlech stirred the blood of the significant Welsh-speaking contingent here, while their take on songs by Muse and Elbow were pleasingly anachronistic while sounding superb to boot. When they closed with Welsh national anthem Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau (Land of my Fathers) a wonderfully surreal candlelit procession ushered revelers toward Stage No.6 for Metronomy's headline set. 6. Eryl Crump : Daily Post A 50-strong male voice choir from just a few miles away proved to be the stars of the show once again as the fourth Festival No 6 got underway in the picturesque surroundings of Portmeirion. Cor y Brythoniaid from Blaenau Ffestiniog - one of the first acts signed up for the inaugural event in 2012 and a fixture ever since - sang to a packed central piazza in Clough Williams-Ellis' Italianate village. Festival No 6: Cor y Brythoniaid pack Portmeirion piazza with rousing performance Their set included the famous cover of New Order's Blue Monday, which they first performed at the first No 6 in honour of that year's headliners. Despite the song's complexities, and the persistent rain which forced accompanist Elizabeth Ellis to shelter under a plastic sheet at times, the choir gave a rousing performance. But an even better performance was to follow when they sung their version of another hit by a Manchester band. The choir gave as good a performance of Elbow’s One Day Like This as the Mancunians themselves, giving the song a new dimension. It was said that two members of the band were at Portmeirion and could have been in the audience, but it was difficult to tell as there were so many people packed into the piazza. 7. Nia Jones : Arts and Food PR. @NiaJon: Biggest crowd puller of @festivalnumber6 . @Brythoniaid Choir with a brilliant @Elbow cover. Best one to date http://t.co/fjdemnGbQx 8. Youtube clips of Choir singing ” One Day Like this ” (sound good, but video a bit hazy) https://youtu.be/d19RHHYTxe0 This clip, although the sound is not the best, gives an idea of the numbers present !! https://youtu.be/eu77L6lpcig Festival No. 6 2014 1. The big boys have a ball in glorious Portmeirion but as Getintothis Peter Guy reflects it’s the Welsh wonders that truly take centre stage. National pride and independence is at the forefront of the news agenda and it seemed fitting that Getintothis closed our festival season at No. 6. For here is a happening which slaps the slogan ‘a festival unlike any other, in a place like no other’ right across it’s forehead. And with good reason. From its setting in the whacked-out fantasy idyll of Portmeirion to the Llwyfan Clough stage promoting home grown talent through to the markets stuffed with locally-sourced produce and the daffodil-sporting Brythoniaid Male Voice Choir, No. 6 is Welsh to it’s core - and therein lies its magic. Here is an event which revels in its identity; cheekily plays with its TV Prisoner theme, thrusts to the fore its quite magnificent landscape hosting stages in the most otherworldly of spots and best of all places a firm emphasis on being proud of it’s heritage and artistic riches. The aforementioned Brythoniaid Welsh Male Voice Choir, celebrating their 50th anniversary, are pivotal to the festival’s ethos. Playing sets across all three nights, they rouse audiences into beaming grins and tear-glistening eyes on each occasion, blending the likes of O Sole Mio with Myfanwy and a belting version of The Pet Shop Boys’ Go West all the while being bathed in gigantic bubbles which fall from above the Greco- Roman Central Piazza. What could be sentimentally naff is quite the opposite, and provides one of the most heartwarming musical moments of 2014. 2. But our festival of 2014 honour belongs to an event which goes way beyond a strong bill of musicians. The town of Portmeirion is a cosmic delight in itself and what the organisers of Festival No. 6 have done is aligned the geographical wonders and first-rate artistic craft to something intangible that courses through the Welsh spirit. It positively swells with communal, good-times vibes. Beck, Grumbling Fur, Steve Mason, Martha Reeves, Jon Hopkins, All We Are and more made this an unforgettable experience but the civic pride epitomised in the Brythoniaid Welsh Male Voice Choir, who, celebrating their 50th anniversary, delivered one of the sets of any summer at one of the most enjoyable festivals we’ve ever experienced. Revelatory. Stunning. How all festivals should aspire to be. Paste Magazine Wow! The Choir version of Good Times has topped the Charts, beating very esteemed company of the Red Army Choir and Vienna Boys Choir in the process. For more information please follow this link. This is something to be very proud of. The Silent Radio Once again we hang about at the Central Piazza for The Brythoniaid Male Voice Choir who were here last year with their rendition of New Order’s Blue Monday. This year they are taking on Chic’s Good times. All but two of the set are covers that they have reworked for the fifty strong choir. We’re stood right at the front so any sound coming from the PA is going straight over our heads and all that we’re hearing is coming direct from the mouths of the choir, and it’s stunning. I take a look back at the Piazza to see if the place is still full, only to find that it’s now bursting at the seams, every little nook, cranny, wall and bench is filled. They close with the Welsh national anthem, and to my surprise, almost everyone around us (I think we’re stood with the choir’s families and friends) joins in at full volume. At the end there’s even a few chants of Oggy Oggy Oggy from the crowd. National Student Magazine Brythoniad Welsh Male Voice Choir - Yes, a traditional male voice choir beats the competition to sit in our ‘highlights’ list. After being one of the surprise hits last year, with their colossal version of New Order’s ‘Blue Monday’ the classic Welsh voice choir drew increasingly growing crowds over their three nightly sets. The pure power of the human voice is impressive, and brings appreciation from the accepting crowd. Bringing in modern renditions to the set makes it relatable to all the crowd – Chic’s ‘Good Times’ and an improved version of ‘Blue Monday’ bring the house down (well not a house, as it is in the beautifully lit outdoor Piaza). On the Friday night set we see they end with an epic version of Muse’s ‘Uprising’ to rapturous applause. The openness to embrace different sounds and ideas is what makes Festival No 6 so interesting, and this set is one of its shining examples. London Magazine Back in town at the amphitheatre, where spoken word, poetry, comedy and acoustic acts performed all day, we were surprised by a spectacular performance of the Brythoniaid Welsh Male Voice Choir. Already a huge hit at last year’s inaugural Festival No.6, the choir performed some traditional hymns before it came out with some quite incredible versions of “Kumbaya”, Chic’s “Good Times”, New Order’s “Blue Monday” and Muse’s “Uprising”. The setting, the atmosphere, the music – it was just one of those once in a lifetime festival moments that you will never forget. Truly magical indeed Entertainment Review The stand-out act, however, were undoubtedly the tuxedo-clad Brythoniaid Welsh Male Voice Choir, who apparently stole the show last year as well. Their gorgeous interpretations of Welsh hymns and dignified covers of the likes of Chic’s Good Times and New Order’s Blue Monday are crowd-pleasing in the best possible way, and the memory of them atop the pillared Bristol Colonnade in the village gardens, their voices projecting out into the seascape, is unforgettable. - See more here TUSK Journal Review - The Six Best Things about Festival No 6 No.5 - Choir The Welsh may be famous for a lot of things (think rugby, Catherine Zeta Jones and a love for all things livestock), but in this particular area of North Wales, it was the voice of the Brythoniaid Male Voice Choir that bathed in the limelight. Performing at the Central Piazza within the heart of the Village, the 60-member choir delivered one of this year’s most intimate, distinctive and special productions. Between a wonderful rendition of ‘Kumbaya’ and ‘Land of my Fathers’, the gentlemen of Brythoniaid performed one of their latest festival commissions, Chic’s ‘Good Times’. With baritones blending the traditional with the contemporary, the Brythoniaid Male Voice Choir produced a spectacle like no other, with punters balancing between stonewalls and perching upon the cliffs in their attempts to capture this unforgettable moment in this festival’s folklore. The Independent Newspaper As night fell and the moon rose, the choir – last year’s surprise hit – showed off its range with moving versions of “Kumbaya” and traditional hymns, before bringing out the big guns with covers of Chic’s “Good Times”, New Order’s “Blue Monday” (so popular last year that it went viral online) and Muse’s “Uprising”. A true highlight of the weekend, the magical experience repeated on Sunday. The Guardian No 6, the Prisoner-themed festival season closer held in the bijou Italianate village of Portmeirion, produced unlikely heroes: the security guard cajoled into joining the impromptu ukulele orchestra on the ornate colonnade; the Tron drum troupe leading Saturday's dusk procession and their robot marchers, neon tubes on every limb; the 50s housewives singing calypso tunes from a dinghy in the fountains and the Brythonthiaid male voice choir, welcomed to the piazza stage for their choral covers of Chic, New Order and Muse so rapturously you'd think David Bowie had joined.