PennWest-Clarion choir works festival with Wales trip in mind

The PennWest-Clarion University choir has hopes of participating in an international music festival in Llangollen, Wales, next summer, pending university approval.

To help pay for the cost of the proposed trip, the 30 choir members have been doing fundraising, including at Autumn Leaf Festival’s Farmers and Crafters Day, where the students sold warm beverages.

The Welsh festival is called the Llangelon International Musical Eisteddfod, which began in 1947 with a vision.

“At the end of World War II, the Welsh people wanted to do something to heal the emotional wounds from the war,” said Dr. Steve Johnson, chairman of the school’s music department.

In that inaugural year, the Musical Eisteddfod was an unqualified success as groups from seven foreign countries traveled to Llangollen, joining choirs from England, Scotland and Wales. A total of 33 choirs performed (27 adult and six children’s).

Since then, more than 400,000 competitors of 140 nationalities and cultures have performed enthusiastically on the Llangollen stage.

“In 1947, a German choir got off the train. They were the first Germans to visit Wales after the war,” Johnson said. “The Germans had been bombed into oblivion during the war and Cardiff (the Welsh capital) was bombed for three years every night. No one knew how the Germans would be received. An old photo shows that they were greeted by the people of Llangollen and met them with hugs, flowers and candy.”

That evening at the festival more than 70 years ago with the war still fresh in people’s minds, the announcer, whose brother was killed in the war, said, “Please welcome our friends from Germany,” according to Johnson, and then the entire audience and choir broke down in tears for 20 minutes.

“That story moved me so we had a piece written about that moment. It’s called ‘Dear Enemies,’’’ Johnson said. “We went in 2013 and sang that piece. We took third place.”

 

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