Treorchy Comprehensive School Band

Celebration Concert Hosted by The Treorchy Comprehensive School Band 

 to mark the retirement of its conductor, Ieuan Morgan MBE

 featuring:

The Treorchy Male Choir - conductor Andrew Badham

 and

Past Players of the Band

 at the Park and Dare Theatre, Treorchy 18^th July 2002

There are a number of videos of Treorchy Comprehensive School Band’s Retirement Concert Held for Ieuan Morgan MBE at the Park and Dare Theatre last July. The videos cost £5 each and can be purchased by contacting Miss Debbie Hosking, Music Department, Treorchy Comprehensive School.

photos to follow

Foreword by Ieuan Morgan

I would like to take this opportunity to say how much I have enjoyed the past forty-nine years as teacher and conductor of the school band, and to say what a privilege it has been to work with such talented young musicians. I look back with pride at the wonderful achievements of the band, making banding history on two occasions, their excellent results in competition, and their high standard of musicianship at concerts, at such prestigious venues as the Royal Albert Hall, The Royal Festival Hall, London, St. David’s Hall Cardiff, Brangwyn Hall, Swansea and on tours abroad.

The highlights over these years are: representing Wales at the Royal Albert Hall in the Championship Section at the National Finals along with the famous Cory Band: and being unbeaten Youth Champions of Wales for ten years, although the tour of Canada came a close third.

I must record my sincere thanks and gratitude to the four head teachers of the school.

Firstly Mr. Percy Griffiths, secondly Mr. John Davies, then Mr. John Owen, and lastly Mrs. Bethan Guilfoyle: without their support and active interest, the School Band would not have achieved the success it has.

The parents association of the School Band have always played a major role in the life of the band and I would like to express my sincere thanks to them.

My thanks to the Treorchy Male Choir for being our Guest Artists this evening. I have had many enjoyable years working with the choir. The first concert the school band performed with them was in 1955, when they gave their services free to help us to compete at the National Eisteddfod in Pwllheli. Their conductor then was John Haydn Davies, and I wonder how many can remember that night, when John Haydn and myself played a euphonium duet.

I also want to express me sincere thanks to Professor Trevor Herbert (who played the trombone with the school band) for coming along this evening to be our guest speaker. My gratitude and thanks to the past players on stage this evening, for making this for me a most memorable night, and thanks to Neil, Phillip, Ceri and Jonathan for organising tonight’s concert.

In conclusion, I would like to say a big thank you to my wife Shirley, without her loyal and wonderful support and understanding over the past forty-nine years, I never would have been able to achieve the recognition I have in the brass band and musical world.

Programme

Ieuan Morgan

Ieuan Morgan MBE began his musical career as an instrumentalist with the Parc and Dare Junior Band, and two years later at the age of fourteen he joined the senior band, then at seventeen he became principal Euphonium, a position he held for sixteen years, proving himself as an outstanding soloist, and was acknowledged as one of the leading players in the principality. In 1964 he became the musical director of Parc and Dare Band, a position he held foe twenty years, a time that proved to be one of the most successful in the history of the band.

Prior to his retirement in 1992, he was head of brass with the Mid Glamorgan education authority, and conductor-in-charge of the Mid Glamorgan Youth Band, as well as being tutor-in-charge of brass courses at the Ogmore Educational Centre for twenty years. Ieuan retired from full-time teaching in 1992, but was retained by the governing body of Treorchy Comprehensive School to continue to teach and conduct the school band, a position that he relinquishes at the end of the forthcoming trip to the Youth Band Festival in Italy. Ieuan has received the following awards for the outstanding contribution and loyal service to the brass band movement:

MBE, presented by Her Majesty the Queen

Illes Silver Medal, presented by the Worshipful Company of Musicians

The All England Masters Award

The Brian Hicks Achievement Award

Rotary International John Harris Award

Music award from the Stutggard Music Festival

Life Member of the South Wales Band Association

Mayor of the Rhondda’s Award

British Legion Award (Treherbert Branch)

Both Ieuan’s sons are professional musicians: Gregory studied Trombone at the Royal Academy of Music, while Kevin won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music, where he studied the Tuba.

Trevor Herbert

Professor Trevor Herbert is Professor of Music at the Open University. He was born and brought up in Parc Road, Cwmparc, and was introduced to music in the Treorchy Secondary School Youth Band. He played second trombone with the band when it famously competed in the Championship Finals in the Royal Albert Hall in 1962. He played in the National Youth Orchestra for Wales, then went on to study music at St. Luke’s College, Exeter, and as Foundation Scholar at the Royal College of Music. He went on to complete a doctorate in sixteenth-century English music. For several years he played professionally in London, primarily with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Taverner Consort and the brass ensemble the Wallace Collection. He undertook several foreign tours and made many recording with major orchestras.

Andrew Badham L.W.C.M.D.

Andrew Badham was born in Mountain Ash in the Cynon Valley and was educated at Mountain Ash Comprehensive School. He went on to the Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff where he studies organ under Robert Joyce, the organist of Llandaff Cathedral.

He also studied choral conducting with Hungarian-born Celia Vadja, a former pupil of the famous composer Kodaly. Andrew went on to Phillipa Fawcett College, London, and gained a teaching diploma.

On leaving college he entered the Civil Service, working in the Department of Employmenr in Brixton, South London. Whilst there, he was for a period of time, organist and choirmaster at the Holy Trinity Church, Upper Tooting.

In 1982 his job transferred to Cardiff and since returning to Mountain Ash has involved himself in many musical activities. He rejoined the Mountain Ash and District Choral Society, where after a period of serving as Assistant Conductor and Accompanist, he was appointed Conductor in 1991, a post which he still holds.

In 1993 he accepted the post of Musical Director to the Cwmbach Male Choir and led them on a successful Canadian Tour, but relinquished this position in May 1997 to take up the baton in Treorchy.

Since his appointment as the Choir’s fourth musical director, he has conducted them in a variety of venues, including the Mansion House, London for the Lord Mayor, on board the magnificent Enchantment of the Seas luxury liner, the Grosvenor House Hotel, London and London Weekend Television Studios.

In November 1999 he led the choir on an unforgettable month long tour of Australia, followed by a two week tour of Canada and the west coast of America in September/October 2000. taking in major venues from Vancouver BC right down to San Francisco. In October 2002 (19^th – 27^th) he will lead the choir in its tour of Scotland.

His ability to reach new musical dimensions can readily be seen in the Choir’s response to his leadership and guidance, making him an equal among the great Welsh choral conductors.

Treorchy Male Choir

There has always been a strong connection between Treorchy Male Choir and Treorchy Comprehensive School. When we refer to the first concert together, twenty-one years ago, John Davies was the Head Teacher there who later became the Chairman of the Choir, the choir’s musical director at that time, now the Conductor Emeritus was John Cynon Jones who became the Deputy Head Teacher at the school, Meurig Hughes was a teacher there who also served as Chairman of the choir and John Mallin, the choir Treasurer served on the school’s governing body for over ten years being its Chairman and Vice Chairman for most of that period.

Ieuan Morgan’s connection with the choir goes back over forty years. He has taken part in many joint events with the choir while as the conductor of the Parc and Dare Band. His connections with the choir go back to the days of John Davies and we are proud and honoured to be here this evening taking part in a concert which has not only been arranged to raise money for the school’s band to travel to Italy in July, but also it marks the retirement of Ieuan. Let us recollect just a few of the glittering moments of his career – when the school band were the undefeated youth champions for ten years between 1974 and 1984, the National Champions at the Royal Albert Hall an three consecutive occasions and particularly when he was awarded the MBE for his services to music in 1984. The school can be justly proud of Ieuan and of its past and current successes.

Treorchy Male Choir is also proud of its successes since its reformation in 1946, firstly by scaling the peaks of musical distinction in the Eisteddfod field by gaining a record eight National wins, making a total of twenty two ‘firsts’ out of twenty seven competition entries. The ‘Treorchy Sound’ was heard nationally and internationally as the choir made regular radio broadcasts, television appearances, commercial recordings and a feature film called Choirs of the World, and in 1963 the choir undertook its first overseas tour to Switzerland and were honoured to be the first Welsh choir to perform in the St. Cecilia Concert in the presence of Her Majesty the Queen in the Royal Albert Hall.

Recognising the profound social changes of the period, Treorchy became the first male choir to venture into the ‘un-chartered’ territory of popular music appearing in television shows with international celebrities such as Ella Fitzgerald, Julie Andrews, Burt Bacharach, Tom Jones and Sir Harry Secombe, and most recently in December 2001, choristers featured alongside young singing sensation Russell ‘The Voice’ Watson and chart topping teen idols S Club 7 on the festive edition of Cilla Black’s popular TV show Surprise, Surprise. The traditional repertoire remains but alongside the works of Grieg, Wagner and Verdi appear Andrew Lloyd Weber, Stephen Sondheun, Paul Anka and ore recently, Freddie Mercury. The choir had made in excess of fifty commercial records – making it the most recorded in the UK and arguably, the world.

Since 1980 the choir has undertaken an enviable amount of over seas tours including two visits to Canada, one of which was in 1985 when the choir performed for a capacity audience in Toronto’s Roy Thompson Hall, and in 1986 on its three weeks tour of Australia was the first Welsh choir to perform in the Sydney Opera House (with two consecutive ‘packed houses’). During the past few years the choir has also enjoyed four tours of the United States of America with performances in Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa, Washington DC, Georgia, California and Colorado. In November 1999 we undertook another unforgettable month-long tour of Australia where we performed twenty-two concert engagements, taking Brisbane’s Queensland Performing Arts Centre and the Adelaide Festival Theatre by storm, and in Sept/Oct 2000 we undertook a tour of Canada and the west coast of America enjoying concert performances in Vancouver, Seattle, Portland and San Francisco. On October 19^th this year the choir will be leaving for a week’s tour in the UK beginning at the Royal Concert Hall, Harrowgate, and then on to Scotland to take in the magnificent venues of The Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Hawick Town Hall, The Caird Hall, Dundee, The Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, The Rothes Hall, Glenrothes and ending at the super Younger Hall at the University of St. Andrews.

Concert engagements lined up for the remainder of the year take us to the New Theatre Woking, The Parkway Hotel, Cwmbran, Sherborne Abbey, College Theatre, Forest of Dean, The Guild Hall, Southampton, Dudley Town Hall and not forgetting our Annual Concert in October and the Concert for Boys and Girls Clubs in December, both at the Park and Dare Theatre. Details of all forthcoming engagements can be found on the choir web site at www.treorchychoir.org.uk