Episode 2 Llangollen

Welcome to this, our second highlights programme from the

Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod we are on stage about to

start a special piece concert including a performance of Karl

Jenkins' chorl work, The Peacemakers and what better place a

stage to concert than in the International Pavilion here at

Llangollen, a festival built around peace.

In tonight's programme, we will have some of that memorable concert,

performances from Valentina Nafornita and the colour and and

spectacle that makes Eisteddfod so special culminating in the Choir of

the World. As Llangollen prepares for the

landmark The Peacemakers concert, we will be talking to Terry Waite.

Five years, no books, no no papers. Who communication, I used to tap on

the wall my name and you regret your name is Terry Waite when you

do that. Let's take a look at the colourful

performances on the Eisteddfod stage in the Folk Dance Competition.

This group are The Heritage Dancers And Ukraine is the home for this

group performing like all the other groups in national costume and

representing a traditional folk Don't they look beautiful? This is

the dance group from the Ukraine. Did you enjoy your time on stage?

Yes, it was great. The feeling is unbelievable. Amazing. We tried our

best. We did all that we can, 100% and even more.

APPLAUSE And from Turkey, this group was the

winner of choreographed children's Well, if you were watching last

Friday's programme, you will see that I have a new fellow presenter,

Wynne Evans. Wynne went to meet a choir in Cape Town who were just

about to make the trip here. Cape Town, South Africa, a bustling

modern city of skyscrapers nestling in the shadow of the mountain. The

golden beaches and restaurants attract thousands of people every

year, but if those attractions aren't enough to tempt you, what

the voices of the of the Chamber Although they sing about the beauty

of the mountain, the reality of life for the choir's members is

quite different to the wonders of central Cape Town. Their home is in

a township 15 miles from the cafes where 80,000 black residents scrape

a living. I was invited into the home of one

of the choir's tenors. This is where I sleep. His early

day notice township were a challenge. The choir provided him

with an alternative. I survived in a lot of bad things,

doing drugs, of course, I almost got into those things. I will be

honest because I had a lot of friends who are now, some of them,

passed away because they were using drugs and some were criminals.

One of the choir's lead sopranoes is just as shocking.

Having to go to bed without any bread in your stomach and having to

wake-up in the morning and go to school.

Often, fathers are absent from homes. HIV and AIDS are rife and

children have to grow up very quickly.

My story today isn't one of pain and poverty, but one of hope where

music really does work its magic. Back in the days of apartheid music

was banned from black schools. Black people were considered not to

be clever enough to handle mathematics and music and music was

too expensive so it was scratched off.

In this township, the music teacher offers people a new path. Since the

dark days of apartheid he has seized every opportunity to develop

school choirs, youth choirs and church choirs, but his true baby is

the Chamber Choir and I was invited to join in.

Township life is a life that nobody would envy from any other person

because it has a huge amount of challenges. Challenges that range

from poverty, to violence. There is this particular code of ethics and

code of conduct that they have to follow. These life skills are rules

should translate into how they should lead their lives.

Valuable skills indeed. Every sing neither choir is either in work or

in education. Many of them in the world of music.

Ah, the choir did a lot for me, but most importantly, it gave me focus

in life. It taught me respect. It disciplined me and it gave me all

of this. Now I'm in my fourth year at University of Cape Town pursuing

my dream and hopefully I'll become famous and a good teacher as well.

The translation of the choir's name is achievement. Here promise offers

hope and achievement, so what choir is more deserving than a place in

the line-up at The Peacemakers concert?

Terry Waite is a popular figure here in Llangollen as Eisteddfod

president and he has a special interest in South Africa and the

struggle against apartheid. I spent a lot of time in the past

working in South Africa along with Desmond Tutu because we have been

great friends and in subsequent years, of course, I worked with

that problem with the problem of apartheid until it came to an end.

I heard how it came to an end in the very unusual way. I was in my

cell in Beirut and I had no communication with the outside

world for years, five years, no books, no papers, no communication.

I used to tap on the wall at night my name one for A, two of B and

three for C, you regret your name is Terry Waite. The taps came back

from the people in the cell next door. They heard me and they

replied to me. They brought me the news of the end of apartheid and I

thought goodness, I never expected to see that in my lifetime and it

always taught me that we've got to be optimistic. Things look dreadful,

economically at the moment, it doesn't look good for us. There is

warfare on our doorstep, you know, our troops are being involved in

conflict over the world, but keep hope alive. That's what kept me

alive in those years. I had five years when I had nothing and high

to live for the day and keep hope alive and that's all somehow,

summed up in this Eisteddfod, giving people hope. Use your

talents. Use your gift of music. The people in Wales have done it.

Putting on The Peacemakers concert has involved forming an orchestra

and a massed choir made up of children and adults from all over

Wales. There can't have been many more

people to see tonight's performance come to a successful conclusion.

This must have been the culmination of many, many months of

collaboration? This was one of the concerts I started putting together

back in October. There has been something with this concert all

along and it is fantastic to see the jigsaw come together. I am

quite emotional about it really and to think the south African group

turned up about ten minutes ago and the jigsaw is complete. I would

like to say my work is done, but there is a lot of work to do this

afternoon and I'm looking forward, I have looked forward to this

You made it, I was glad to see you here. It was a mammoth task. We

were on the road for 24 hours, believe it or not, but coming here,

it was worth all the effort. Yes, we really are enjoying our stay

here so far. And the choir will have quite a

part in the peace makers, the new work by Karl Jenkins. Karl, when

you composed the Armed Man, you said it was with a hope of looking

forward to a century of peace, but sadly nothing much seems to have

changed. That was 12 years ago to the

Millennium Commission 2000. As you say, nothing has changed.

There is conflict somewhere in the world always, unfortunately.

So with The Peacemakers, what you have got is texts from some of the

world's greatest peace leaders? Gandy, Mandela, Martin Luther King

and Terry Waite. Sometimes we think that peace can

only be brought about by those in political office, but one thing is

is clear, those in political office know how to get us into war quickly,

but peace actually has got to begin in the hearts of everybody. Karl

aids that process through his work. To conduct it is a challenge to put

it together. It is well rehearsed. The choirs rehearse in isolation

and then it comes together on the day when they come together with

the orchestra. But the live performances are different and they

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have a certain spark hopefully when Here is another section from The

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I am really being spoiled this week at Llangollen.

Look who we have got here, another Wynne, it is a win, win situation.

So you have been listening to the choirs for us with an expert ear,

we are coming to the climax of the competitions with the Choir of the

World competition. What are your impressions of the choirs so far?

As always in Llangollen, it has been fantastic because you have got

choirs from all four corners of the world coming with different sounds

and different interpretations to different songs and it is like a

festival for your ears and a festival for your eyes because with

the different costumes as we can see here, sadly I didn't bring my

sequins with me today. That's a shame. Wouldn't you like

to see him in sequins? Yes. I might have my sequins on

underneath! We look forward to seeing you later.

One of the singers is the soprano, Valentina Nafornita. She wowed

Wales and the world last year as the runaway winner of Bebecar

difficult singer of the -- BBC Cardiff Singer of the World.

I love to be here. I am not talk being the weather, but the area is

really, really beautiful and I hope to enjoy this beautiful evening.

Is it the first time you have performed with Karl Jenkins? Yes,

it is my first time to perform with him.

Is it an interesting process to go about learning the work? It is

really interesting and it is really easy because the music is really

beautiful and you can very quickly learn it.

And we will hear Valentina Nafornita in The Peacemakers later,

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but here she is with a performance Llangollen is for everyone of all

ages and it is time for the younger competitors to take centre stage

now for the Junior Children's Choir # Drip, drop, rain

APPLAUSE And that's a fantastic win for the

choir and their leader. The children have put their

loyalties to one side for a performance of Be Joyful.

# Be joyful # Clap your hands together

# Be joyful # Be joyful #

APPLAUSE Llangollen is really for everyone,

whatever your age and with me is Mervin who at 88, Mervin, is a

finalist in the folk song competition. Tell me about when you

first started coming to Llangollen? Well, I came in 1965 and in ten

years I had plucked up courage to go in the folk competition so I

entered a folk song in 1975 and I won it. So I had a go the next year

and I won it again and I thought this is dead dead easy, but I

haven't won it since! # The small things fell off her

# And into bed tumbled # And I'll leave you to guess

# How that young couple fumbled # Sing riddle diddle day #

Mervin didn't win this year, but at least he can say he appeared on the

same stage as Alfie Boe. # The hotel California

# What a nice surprise # Bring your alibi

What's your impression, what's the standard like? We started this

evening with the National University Choir of sing Singapore.

If you were to take the bookies favourite, these were the bookies

favourite and they started this evening with a piece called Wings

and you could hear a pin drop. The And the next choir was a choir from

Belgium? Yes, a choir from my grandfather's homeland. The one

thing you notice is their tights, green, red, blue, they started

their programme with a song called Gossiping Women.

It was a brilliant portrayal of a And the next choir is the Barbe

Shop Choir. It is the battle of the sequins.

All he can smell when then come on stage is the smell of hair spray.

The White Rosettes started with the theme tune from The Muppets and it

was absolutely brilliant. And now the female choir, the girls,

how did they do? This was the surprise of the evening for me. It

was ap women's choir from Kettering in Northamptonshire and they sang

And finally the male male voice choir, what did you think of them?

This was hotly contested with ten choirs competing. The winners were

from Germany, it wouldn't have been my choice and they sang and brought

a programme that had real humour. The song was about a drunk man

singing and he was being answered by the rest of the choir and they

finished their programme with what they described as a non-sensical

song and it was complete with funny hats, I felt, that they treated the

music with a little too much respect that they had white gloves

on. I wanted them to go for it a APPLAUSE

The last the male voice choir won this competition was in 1990, so

who knows. Well, let's see who is going to win.

The winner of Choir of the World 2012, the choir from Germany.

Does it feel good? Oh very good. And a nice big trophy? It is heavy.

It is very heavy. Well done all of you. It has been a

wonderful week here at Llangollen and a feast of international