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WELSH MUSIC At RAINFOREST FESTIVAL

WELSH MUSIC At RAINFOREST FESTIVAL

KUCHING, Thursday – Audience at the Rainforest World Music Festival will be able to sample Welsh music which will be staged on the weekend on July 14 to 16.

Welsh musician and legend, Huw Williams, as well as ‘Cool Cymru’ ambassadors Calan will be performing alongside popular international musicians at the festival.

Huw Williams, a veteran in the Welsh music scene, is a champion Eisteddfod clog-dancer, songwriter, guitarist, story-teller, Welsh bagpiper, half of Welsh legendary duo with Tony Williams and former front man of Welsh indie pop stars, The Pooh Sticks.

Some of his well-known songs include ‘The Summer Before the War’, ‘Rosemary’s Sister’ and ‘I can Jump Puddles’, while his newer songs include ‘Giggly’, recorded and performed by Calan.

Huw had ‘retired’ from the folk-club scene for a long time, but his contributions to the heritage of Welsh music continued as a member of the group Crasdant and his position as tutor and teacher of clog-dancing at trac workshops.

Huw was the co-founder of the Welsh Music Foundation established in 2000 with the intention of promoting Welsh music to the younger generation of musicians, and nurtured the careers of bands such as the 60ft Dolls, Catatonia as well as another band performing at the Festival, Calan.

Calan has been performing since 2008, the five band members perform their vibrant renditions of traditional Welsh music and are the new ambassadors of Cool Cymru.

Originally a tongue-in-cheek response by the ‘Cool Britannia’ musical movement to the aspiring cultural musicians in Wales, ‘Cool Cymru’ symbolised a time of desperation where Welsh culture was slipping away or ridiculed. Now, the term has been redeemed, or even reborn, into a powerful movement of cultural restoration and international recognition.

Calan has performed throughout major festivals in the UK and the rest of Europe, such as the Cambridge Festival, at Celtic Connections in Glasgow, Shrewsbury Folk Festival, Mosely Folk Festival, Derby Folk Festival, Bromyard Folk Festival as well as the Whitby Folk Festival and the concert tour of Italy, Austria and Belgium.

They have since become the only band from Wales to win the international folk group trophy at Lorent in Brittany, France.

They have released five albums with Sain Records including their debut album, Bling (2008), Jonah (2012), Giggly (2013), Dinas (2015) and Solomon (2017).

Welsh music is energetic and spritely, and with both Huw Williams of the ‘old school’ and Calan with their modernised traditional songs, their performances at the Festival are assuredly going to be foot tapping at the very least.

The Festival will be held at the Sarawak Cultural Village which also features  wellness programmes, informative talks, interactive ‘mini sessions’ in the afternoon as well as night concerts throughout the three-day festival.

Some 20 international bands will be performing, while many local bands such as At Adau will be taking centre stage with their cultural performances of Sarawak.

Rainforest World Music Festival is organised by Sarawak Tourism, endorsed by Tourism Malaysia and is jointly supported by the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Youth Sports Sarawak and partnering with Malaysia Airlines as the presenting sponsor with Zurich Insurance Malaysia Berhad (ZIMB) and Zurich Takaful Malaysia Berhad (ZTMB) (Zurich Malaysia) as Corporate Social Responsibility Partner.

RWMF2017 CALAN

Issued by:

Communications Unit
SARAWAK TOURISM
T: +6 082-423600  F: +6 082-416700
E: [email protected]

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Tourism Malaysia

Vienna Boys’ Choir

October 26, 2011 at 2:00 pm

The Vienna Boys’ Choir is one of the best known boys’ choirs in the world. It is made up of a choir of trebles and altos and is based in Vienna. Though the boys are mainly selected from Austria, there are other boys that comes from other countries in the choir group. There are approximately 100 choristers between the ages of ten and fourteen. This group is divided into four smaller groups and each of the group is named after famous Austrian composers that were associated with the choir’s history. The four are Bruckner, Haydn, Mozart and Schubert.

Vienna Boys’ Choir will be performing in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah on 29th and 30th October 2011

It is hoped that the choir can create an environment where the boys can fully develop and realise their personal and musical potential. The experiences that a boy has while being a member of The Vienna Boys’ Choir stays with him for life, and the Choir aims to make it as diverse and interesting as possible.

This famous choir will be in Malaysia come 29th and 30th October 2011 in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. They will be performing a broad repertoire ranging from sacred music to operettas , traditional Viennese waltzes and folk songs from around the world. This event is part of Rotary Club Kota Kinabalu’s fund-raising project. Tickets are priced at RM 250, RM 100 and RM 50 (for students) and is available for purchase at Tong Hing Supermarkets, Pacific Sutera Hotel and Magellan Sutera Resort. For tickets and more information, please contact Mr Edward Sung Burongoh at +6019 821 5557 or email all enquiries to burongoh@gmail.com.

Photo (c) Sarah_Ackerman

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