Eisteddfod launches singer search for ambitious international project

The National Eisteddfod has put out an appeal for singers of all ages to take part in an ambitious international mass choir project.

The Eisteddfod is looking for singers to take part in a special project, which will premiere on Friday 6th August as part of this year’s Eisteddfod AmGen festival.

The project, that will see hundreds of singers uniting to perform a brand new song, is slightly different to recent mass choir campaigns, as organisers want to hear from people from Wales – and the world – to join the ambitious international choral project, which heralds a brand new partnership with the National Arts Centre in Canada.

Well-known Welsh composer and performer, Lleuwen Steffan, is responsible for the song itself, and the choral arrangement and production elements are led by Erin Costelo from Nova Scotia.

Describing the song, Lleuwen said: “The song is called ‘Os’ (‘If’) and is a high energy folk rock experiment of collective hope! We really welcome all voices for this. All you’ll have to do is sing into your phones with a simple accompaniment and we’ll add the rest of the instruments afterwards. We can’t wait to hear from you – and hear you!”

The Eisteddfod is at pains to point out that you don’t need to be an experienced singer either. If you can hold a tune, you’re in.

Huge choir

Co-ordinator, Mari Pritchard, said: “We want to create the first ever international Welsh choir, and we need your help. This is an energetic and hopeful song, and the intention is to use our culture to further develop the relationship between Wales and Canada – and what better way to do that than by creating a huge choir with singers from both countries – and beyond.

“It’s an incredibly ambitious project, but we’re confident we’ll get some amazing singers to join us so we can create a truly wonderful rendition of this beautiful song. I can’t wait to hear the final version.”

National Arts Centre

Lleuwen Steffan and Erin Costelo added: “We’re both great fans of collaborative projects like this and love co-creating music in this way. It’s been great to work with the Eisteddfod and the National Arts Centre in Canada. There are already a lot of creative links between the two countries, and this is a great opportunity to create more.”

To get involved in the project all you need to do is upload a recording of you singing the song along with a selfie (if you want) to include in the music video of the song.

The organisers will do the rest.

To register and find out more visit here. 

Find out more about the National Eisteddfod here  and for more on the National Arts Centre in Canada, visit here.