Cardiff Polyphonic Choir

A short history of the choir

Cardiff Polyphonic Choir, now in its 46^th year, has a proud history. The Choir has been an ambassador for Welsh music, touring the USA on nine occasions. Its tours of Italy, Brittany, Austria, Germany, Canada, Belgium, Holland, Denmark and Prague have helped to earn the choir’s international reputation. At home, too, the Choir’s reputation is strong.

It has performed in all the major London musical venues. In the 1980s and early 1990s it worked with many of the great conductors and orchestras of our time – the Philharmonia, the London Symphony Orchestra, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the London Baroque, the London Mozart Players and the Hallé.

And it has sung under the baton of Sir Colin Davis, Sir Charles Groves, Richard Hickox, Sir Roger Norrington, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Sir Andrew Davis, Jane Glover, Paavo Berglund, and John Alldis.

2009 was a full year which included a performance of Haydn's Paukenmasse, a tour to Bruges, 5 very well supported charity concerts, and a performance in the Welsh Proms of Arwel Hughes's Dewi Sant. A group from the Choir sang Holst's First Choral Symphony in the BBC Proms in the Royal Albert Hall on the 26th July with the BBC National Chorus of Wales and the BBC Symphony Chorus. The Choir enjoyed an invitation in November to return to Leominster Priory where it sang a Concert with a Remembrance theme with music by Lewis, Purcell, Tavener and Lauridsen.