Cantorion & Symphonica Tywi
Introduction to the choir.
The choir and the orchestra were founded in 1992 when Mike Cottam, our conductor, came to Llangadog.
The choir has currently 45 members drawn from towns and villages throughout the Tywi valley. The choir is unique in being an amateur choir associated with its own symphony orchestra.
Funding.
To bring a performance together requires funding and as a voluntary group the Choir has to raise monies every year through subscription and holding social events. It has always been the Musical Director's aim to engage the finest artistes and to hire scores for up to fifty instrumentalists. No mean feat! Ticket prices never reflect our heavy financial outlay. As a community based charity we are committed to keeping ticket prices affordable to all. Children under 14 come free and concessionary tickets are sold alongside set price tickets. We are indebted to the P.C.C. of St. Cadog's Church, Llangadog for their generosity in allowing us the freedom of church facilities for a nominal sum.
None of these arrangements would be possible without the support of Friends of Cantorion and Symphonica Tywi. To become a Friend costs only £10 a year and includes facilities for advance booking, invitations to social events and a half-yearly newsletter. At the next concert, look for the form in the programme which tells you how to become a Friend or contact us by email to Jean: tickets@cantoriontywi.org.ukOur conductor.
Mike Cottam is the vicar of Llangadog, Gwynfe and Llanddeusant. Formerly Agricultural Chaplain to the Diocese of St. David's and Chaplin to Llandovery College. He founded the orchestra and choir when he came to Llangadog 17 years ago after ordination. His career before then was in agriculture, managing large dairy herds and arable farms in Canada, England and West Wales, ending up as estate manager to Picton Castle, Pembrokeshire. Throughout his life has run the central core of music making in several forms.
Mike has been a chorister since the age of six and his interest in conducting stems from that age - his mother could never find her knitting needles ! He has been cathedral chorister both as a boy and adult in Leicester, Peterborough, Montreal and St. David's cathedrals. He has been organist in seven churches, founder of a rock group in Pembrokeshire "Empty Pockets", Chairman and Musical Director of Haverford West Operatic Society and musical director of Cantorion Tywi and Symphonica Tywi both of which he founded upon arriving in Llangadog. He is also a former member of "Summer Singers" and founder of "Frenzaloud", an a capella vocal group.
Mike is an enthusiastic, but strictly amateur, player of organ, piano, cello and bass recorder. Along with other members of the orchestra and choir, Mike took part in a six-part documentary called Valley of Song filmed by the BBC over 19 months after a pilot in 2004. He counts the friendships formed throughout the years in the choir and orchestra as some of the most precious features of his life. He is married to Caroline and they have four children and four grandchildren.
