The South Wales Gay Men’s Chorus began life in February 2008 when its founder member (Music Director Andrew Bulleyment) decided a gay choir for the South Wales area was long overdue. Over the 14 years since the choir has been on a wild ride, becoming a recognised and respected part of the LGBTQ+ community in Cardiff and South Wales, attending numerous national and international festivals, and hosting one of our own at the Hand in Hand LGBT Choral Festival in 2019. Along the way our crowning achievement might well have to be becoming festival champions at Cornwall International Male Choral Festival (the worlds largest amateur male voice festival) in 2017. Incidentally if you are so inclined you can watch the (also award winning) documentary Côr Blimey about this extraordinary journey on our videos page.
In early 2022, after nearly 14 years of service Andy Bulleyment stepped down from his role to pursue some new challenges, and the choir is looking forward to both honouring its legacy and taking on new challenges, and is very excited to have been able to hand the baton over to our former assistant music director and accompanist Christopher Fossey, who took over as Music Director in March 2022.
Our members hail from across South Wales (and beyond) and we pride ourselves on providing a friendly, inclusive and welcoming environment in which to make music and have a great time. We sing everything from traditional male voice choir pieces, to show tunes and modern classics.
We rehearse on Thursday evenings and regularly socialise both on and away from the gay scene. If you would like more information or are interested in joining us, please contact us at gaychorus@gmail.com or click on the Contact page. You don’t need to be a trained singer and YOU DO NOT NEED TO AUDITION. Our next new members evening isn’t for a while but don’t let that stop you! We rehearse at Roath Church House every Thursday at 7.30pm, and we’d love to see you there; just come along!
Our Values
Our values as a choir aim to ensure that our culture is respectful, diverse, inclusive and supportive so that everyone feels safe and comfortable when they engage with us as members, audience and others we may perform with or for. Behaviour that adversely affects the dignity of others has no place in the choir and will be challenged. The values that steer us as members’ choir are:
Pride – we are proud of who we are, what we do and our positive image.
Commitment - be present by learning, listening and making performance as best as it can be.
Supporting – be patient, kind and respectful.
Enjoyment – be part of the team, no egos, make singing and music fun.
In line with these values, every member of the choir is expected to show a high degree of respect for the dignity of others and to be capable of assessing whether any kind of negative behaviour risks being perceived as inappropriate either by the recipient or others.
