Coast & Countryside

See it... Hear it...

There’s a vibrant arts, music and culture scene in Carmarthenshire offering a wide range of great music, dance and hauntingly beautiful male voice choirs.

Don’t miss the Llandeilo Festival of Music and Flowers is a summer sensation not to be missed. This annual event takes place at various venues around Llandeilo, attracting a fantastic variety of international musicians and drawing audiences from all over Wales and beyond. This year’s festival is held on July 11th - 18th and promises to be an extravaganza full of opera, jazz - and flowers.

Instrumental and Classical

Carmarthenshire has an eclectic mix of classical musicians who have represented the land of song all over the world. Among the best known is soprano Shan Cothi who pis also a television presenter and who has appeared in many West End shows. Tenor Aled Hall from Pencader studied Opera at the National Opera Studio in London and has performed in operas and concerts all over the world. Y Tri Tenor, John Davies, Crwys Evans and Robyn Lyn Evans, are all successful soloists and have won national and international competitions.

Instrumentalists Sild tour regularly across Europe and play a combination of Welsh and Estonian music. The Wyn Lodwick Jazz Band provide a bilingual set and have appeared many times on S4C. Also, Pedwarawd Llinynnol Rhosyn Wen is made up of four local musicians who perform classical songs from modern shows plus a bit of jazz and pop.

Rock

Prominent young singer songwriter Fflur Dafydd is taking Wales’s music scene by storm. Her Welsh-language songs are a fusion of blues, soul and pop and many are performed by her band Fflur Dafydd a’r Barf (Fflur Dafydd and the Beard). Fflur, who is from Llandysul, lives in Carmarthen and is a part-time lecturer at Trinity College. She has released three albums and has performed in Ireland, Belgium, Croatia, Finland and the United States. She also writes fiction and her third novel 'Twenty Thousand Saints' is published later this year. www.fflurdafydd.com

Supergene are a rock band from Carmarthen and winners of the BBC’s local talent competition held in Carmarthen in 2005; the Llansteffan five piece Texas Radio Band have won several awards for originality while rock and jazz group Ha Kome were formed to compete in a Battle of the Bands competition on Radio Cymru.

Choirs

Our award-winning choirs have chalked up an impressive list of awards and achievements. Pontarddulais Male Choir is one of the most successful competitive choirs in Wales; they have worked with stars such as Bryn Terfel and Pink Floyd. One of the county’s first male voice choirs, Cor Meibion Llandybie was established over a hundred years ago and have been successful many times in the National Eisteddfod.

Cor Meibion Llanelli have appeared countless times on television and have performed all over the world, while Cor Merched Lleisiau’r Cwm from Llandeilo, were winners of the S4C Wales' Ladies Choir competition in 2005.

Folk

Mother and daughter duo Gwenda Owen and Geinor Haf are one of Carmarthenshire’s most exciting and popular acts. Gwenda was born in Pontyberem where she sang with her sisters and still lives there today. She has released many Cds and won Can i Gymru in 1995 with the song 'Can i’r Ynys Werdd'. Another of Carmarthenshire’s successes is Geraint Griffiths who has been recording since 1973. He is a former member of two of Wales’s best known groups 'Injaroc' and 'Eliffant'.

Pop

Brothers Paul and Adrian Gregory are Y Brodyr Gregory, two Ammanford boys who have been entertaining Wales for many years. Ryland Teifi is a successful singer and actor as are Elin Llwyd, Catherine Ayres and Deiniol Wyn Rees.

Dance

Don’t get the hump if someone invites you to a Twmpath Dawns this weekend! Twmpath is a Welsh word literally meaning a hump and which once applied to the mound or village green upon which the musicians sat and played for the community to dance. It is used today to mean a Welsh version of the barn dance, a Celtic mix of music, dance and language. One of the best known traditional dance groups are Dawnswyr Talog which celebrates 30 years this year. They offer a mix of traditional folk dances from different parts of Wales as well as original dances.