Sunday 26 October 2014
Bridgend Male Choir is privileged to have received its second invitation to visit the city of s’Hertogenbosch, this time to help commemorate the 70th anniversary of the city’s liberation from the Nazis in 1944 by the 53rd Welsh Division. Chorister, Tim O'Hagan writes........
The Division drove the Germans out of the city after a hard-fought battle over four days and at the cost of 146 dead and many hundreds wounded. For many years since, the city has invited a choir from Wales to attend the annual commemoration at the Welsh memorial sited in the area named the 53rd Welsh Division Square.
The Bridgend choristers will have a busy schedule singing at the memorial in the morning of 26 October 2014, followed by a “sold out” evening concert at the Jheronimus Bosch Arts Centre which will be shared with soloists from it's music team.
On 27 October a concert will be given for the residents of the De Taling Nursing Home and its hoped an impromptu “a capella” performance at the magnificent St. Jan's Cathedral on the main City square. On the following evening, choristers will share a social evening with the 125 strong, host mixed choir, Gemeng'd Koor.
On the homeward journey to Calais, the three coaches will pass through Flanders and the Choir plans to sing at the Menin Gate in Ypres. The Monument records the names of some 54,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers who were killed in the Ypres Salient during the Great War, but who have no known grave. It's also intended to sing at the new Welsh Memorial on the nearby Pilkem Ridge in Langemark. This monument is dedicated to all Welsh men and women who served during the Great War and was unveiled this year by Wales First Minister & Bridgend Male Choir Patron, Carwyn Jones.