* Moira and her memories – Moira Humphreys with some of the many cuttings she has from a lifetime’s involvement with the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod.
* The Coedpoeth Choir which competed in 1947 – and went on to win at the National Eisteddfod in Colwyn Bay that year.
* Zulu competitors who stayed with Moira Humphreys in Coedpoeth in 1977.
A music loving 92-year-old great-grandmother is spearheading an appeal
to find veterans of the first ever Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod
in 1947.
Retired teacher Moira Humphreys was a member of the Coedpoeth Youth
Choir who took to the stage at the inaugural festival which was established to
promote peace in the aftermath of the Second World War.
Organisers are planning to present Moira and surviving fellow
competitors from the historic first eisteddfod with commemorative medals to
mark the 75th anniversary of the event.
The popular festival which helped launch the careers of opera
superstars Luciano Pavarotti and Sir Bryn Terfel had to be cancelled in 2020
for the only time since its inauguration due to the impact of the Coronavirus
pandemic.
In 2021 it took on a virtual format with performances streamed online
but this year the music and dance extravaganza is back in the town where “Wales
welcomes the world”.
Preparations are well underway for this year’s festival which starts on
Thursday, July 7, and culminates with Llanfest on Sunday, July 10, when the
eisteddfod are joining forces with the Llangollen Fringe Festival.
During the four-day event there will be a host of new attractions and
activities on the revamped outdoor site, including music, dance, talks, comedy, food, drink, shopping,
workshops and pop-up entertainment.
In the evenings there will be concerts featuring the singing duo of
Aled Jones and Russell Watson and Anoushka Shankar, the British-Indian-American
sitar player, producer, film composer and activist who is a half-sister to
singer Norah Jones.
The competitions come to a crescendo on the Saturday night with Choir
of the World and the contest for the Pendine International Voice of the Future
featuring the finest young singers from around the world.
News that the eisteddfod is returning in a physical form this year was
music to the ears of Moira Humphreys, from Coedpoeth, near Wrexham, who has
vivid memories of the very first one.
She was just a teenager then but over the following
seven decades she continued to attend and joined the eisteddfod’s army of
volunteers, working with the hospitality team to find accommodation locally for
overseas competitors, and more recently she helped greet visitors at the
reception area.
According to Moira, she has some “amazing’ memories of good times” at
the eisteddfod and has seen many changes since that first occasion when she
sang with the Coedpoeth Youth Choir, which was placed third in the choral
competition.
Moira who has two grown up daughters, Helen and Mari, several
grandchildren and a great grandchild, said: “It would be nice to know there are
veterans like me still out there. It is a such gracious idea to recognise them
in this anniversary year.”
She is proud to have known the early instigators of the festival
including the chairman of Coedpoeth Youth Choir, Harold Tudor, who came up with
the idea to hold an international eisteddfod.
“The first festival,” she said, “was held in 1947 but in the couple of
years leading up to that there was a lot of hard work put in, fund-raising
locally and logistical planning, all of which helped to make it the success it
has become today.”
Performers from seven overseas countries braved the journey to
Llangollen for the inaugural festival, with about 27 choirs from Wales,
England, and Scotland. Decades later more than 400,000 competitors from 140
nations have performed on the world famous stage, while icons of classical and
popular music have headlined the varied concert programme. They include Placido
Domingo, Kiri Te Kanawa, Jehudi Menuhin, Margot Fonteyn, Elaine Paige and
Michael Ball – not to mention Sir Bryn Terfel and Luciano Pavarotti who both
competed on the famous pavilion stage as young singers.
Moira has a large collection of memorabilia including past programmes
and newspaper cuttings which she often looks at to refresh her memory of past
eisteddfods.
She was overjoyed to have seen the late opera icon Pavarotti walking
round the eisteddfod field as if it was a home from home when he returned as a
superstar in 1995.
Camilla King, the eisteddfod’s executive producer, said : We are
hugely grateful to Moira for helping in our bid to track down people who
competed at the very first festival in 1947.
“Clearly, their numbers will have dwindled over the years but, as we
are celebrating such a momentous milestone, we would like to celebrate the
important part they played in creating history and generating new hope at a
time when the world was still reeling.
“We feel it is important to honour these peace pioneers who helped lay
the foundations for this international treasure.
“One thing that has been steadfast is the ethos of harmony and
friendship which was at the heart of the very first eisteddfod, with the aim of
promoting peace and healing the wounds of World War II.
“Our philosophy is as important now as ever given the invasion of
Ukraine and other troubling issues affecting the world today.
“That’s why we are thrilled to be able to welcome international
competitors back to Llangollen so we can bring people together in a spirit of
friendship and harmony in every sense of the word.”
* If you know of anybody who competed at the first Llangollen
International Musical Eisteddfod in 1947 please contact Ceidiog Hughes by
emailing ceidiog@ceidiog.com or ringing 07958 497592.
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