Hogia'r Ddwylan

Hogia’r Ddwylan is a male voice choir from Anglesey and Gwynedd. It was founded in 1966 and they have around 40 members. They have six albums to date, two of them under the baton of their Music Director Ilid Anne Jones. Their programme has varied over the years to include folk songs, cerdd dant and male choir repertoire. They have won at all national festivals in Wales including the National Eisteddfod and the Cerdd Dant Festival. They’ve also been successful in competitions in Brittany, Ireland and Northern Ireland, and have performed in Belgium, Germany and England. It was an honor for them to perform Brian Hughes’ work at the National Eisteddfod in 2003 along with Godre’r Aran and Rhosllannerchrugog choirs, and the highlight of 2005 was to perform the anthems at the Millennium Stadium before one of the rugby matches. They also won the BBC Radio Cymru Male Choir competition in 2008. Ilid Ann Jones, Music Director is a national winner on both piano and organ. She is a piano and organ tutor, a performing arts tutor, accompanist, adjudicator and organist. She gained her B. Mus degree with honours from the University of Wales, Bangor, followed by an M. Phil degree. Rhian Roberts has been their accompanist since 2002. She also gained a music degree with honours at Bangor University and is now a teacher at Llanfairfechan. She won ‘Young Musician of the year in Gwynedd in 1998’, and she’s also an accompanist at local and Urdd eisteddfodau and teaches children and young people to play the piano.