Choir of over 1000 Welsh children to perform at major arena this Spring

Ella Groves

A choir made up of over one thousand children from Wales will be performing at a major arena this spring in a powerful celebration of young voices – featuring a song written by the children themselves.

Codi Llais, meaning ‘raise your voice’, is a new singing and songwriting initiative that will bring together thousands of young people in one of the largest massed-choir events ever held in the Welsh capital.

Around 1,600 children in Years 5–7 from across Cardiff will perform alongside a rock band and professional musicians at the Utilita Arena Cardiff this April.

The children will be joined on stage by Welsh singer-songwriter Shellyann, known for winning All Together Now, and comedian, actor, and singer Mike Doyle.

The show will be compered by Huw Stephens, a longstanding champion of the Welsh music scene and well known presenter on BBC Radio.

CF Music Education, which has organised the event with support from Cardiff Council, has promised an “unforgettable evening” to celebrate the future of music in Cardiff.

‘Opportunity’

1,600 children will perform in the concert, but the project will reach up to 10,000 children through in-school visits where professional vocal practitioners will work directly with the children to support them in developing literacy and oracy alongside vocal technique, confidence and musicianship.

Hollie-Anne Clark is one of the professional vocal practitioners participating in the project.

Describing her role in the concert she said: “So I am one of the vocal leaders, I’m going to be working with some schools, helping the children to learn the songs that are part of the Codi Llais project and I will also be in the actual Codi Llais Arena concert. 

“I’ll be conducting some pieces, mentoring some of the groups of kids, as well as I’ll be singing as part of the band on stage with the other vocal leaders and then some special guests as well.”

Hollie also highlighted the importance of the project in providing opportunities to children who otherwise may not have access to music or voice lessons.

She said: “I mean, lots of kids in a lot of the schools that we work in maybe don’t ever have opportunities to perform and to, you know, even experience such a large venue on such a big scale.

“You know, this is maybe the first time they’ve ever even been to the arena, or let alone obviously sang in the arena. It’s quite a big deal for anybody to do.

“So the fact that these kids get this opportunity is fantastic, it’s something that they will remember for a long time, because I think, you know, these days there’s a lot of disconnect isn’t there in society and this is all about connection because it’s actually bringing people together and experiencing and sharing something live.”

‘Songwriting’

As part of the project the children have written a song for the concert with the help of BBC Radio Wales host and singer-songwriter Bronwen Lewis.

Two sessions were held with a selection of children from across the project allowing them to participate in the creation of a song specially for the concert.

The children first brainstormed what music means to them and how it makes them feel, before working as a group to compose the lyrics.

Mali, one of the children in the choir, shared how excited she was to be included in the songwriting process with her peers.

She said: “I thought it might just be writing a song with some other people but we’ve been really, really included and instead of somebody else writing a song and us helping, we’ve really been included in, like, composing it and it’s a part of us now and not just a random song.”

Dewi, who was also part of the songwriting, added: “I enjoyed that we had the opportunity to put our ideas into a song and there was no wrong answers. I feel sometimes that you can have wrong answers in other things, but in music you just can’t have any wrong answers.”

On her involvement in the songwriting sessions, Bronwen said: “Well I’ve always worked with young people when it comes to music, songwriting, I used to travel around so many different schools in Wales.

“So when I was offered this opportunity to be able to sit in a room with children from all different backgrounds and all different types of schools and different languages and I just thought this is just going to be amazing.

“I just know that it’s going to make my heart feel very full when I leave the room and oh my gosh it’s been that and more just to see their talent and their tenacity and just seeing their passion for music has really almost reignited my own passion for music.”

‘Fun’

But for most of the kids the most exciting thing about the Codi Llais project isn’t performing in a big arena, it’s simply how fun the whole experience has been.

Maddie said: “I really enjoyed the fact like all of us singing in unison and it sounded really beautiful and it was very magical to hear everyone’s voices all together and writing the song was a very great experience with Bronwyn Lewis and yeah I just enjoyed basically all of it.”

Jayden added: “Just being part of it was incredible, being… talking to Bronwen Lewis was just so cool.”

Codi Llais will be performed on 15 April 2026 at 7pm. Tickets are available now and can be found through the Utilita Arena Cardiff website.