For 21+1 years, Trac Cymru has been working to ensure that the Welsh folk traditions can survive and thrive in future years by supporting the career progression of musicians who excel in their craft. The charity has played a significant role in the early development of many established artists, including those in the bands Calan, NoGood Boyo, and VRï, and an important part of our work is to provide on-going career support and promotion for professional Welsh musicians.
At the beginning of October, the Welsh ‘chamber-folk’ band VRï was placed in the top 30 of the Transglobal World Music Chart with their second album, ‘Islais a Genir’. The life stories of the three musical stars who make up the band, Jordan Price Williams, Patrick Rimes and Aneirin Jones, have many links to Trac Cymru, as the charity’s director, Danny KilBride, recalls: “I first met Patrick Rimes in a fiddle competition when he was 12, Aneirin when he turned up at our Big Experiment at age 14, and Jordan when he was a student at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.
“We can’t claim any responsibility for the immense talent of this exciting generation of Welsh bands, but we are pleased to have been able to give them a huge amount of mentoring, training, and advice. We are delighted to see them succeeding when we think about how many of our courses they attended, how many times we were able to put them on shortlists, work with their management teams, take them to conferences and trade events, and represent them when they needed a broker.”
In the following video, Jordan Price Williams talks inspiringly about his personal journey as a musician, his love of traditional Welsh music, and his connections with the work of Trac Cymru:
As we take a look back at our 21+1 years to date working to sustain our important national music traditions, Trac Cymru is also planning our future programme of support for the next generation of young Welsh musicians. Please support us by sharing these stories with your friends and colleagues, and join us in posting your own happy memories about Welsh folk music on social media #TRAC21, and you can help us fund our work by making a donation today.
