The Côr of The Matter is a new choir from Naarm/Melbourne who sing songs from Cymru/Wales. 

The pondering Welsh psyche has over a millenia produced powerful songs for those seeking solutions to life's problems. A culture formed in the Bronze Age, let the dark hearts of The Welsh embrace you. Heartbreak, death, existential crisis; nothing can faze them. Songs from Cymru, their côr in Naarm, this is not like any Welsh côr (choir) you have heard before. The songs are old, and the songs are in Welsh, but freshly re- arranged by Bush Gothic’s Jenny M. Thomas. And how will you understand the  ancient Celtic words? Prize winning visual artist Jacqui Stockdale translates the lyrics into images, magically transforming the performance space in real time with real paint and emotion to match.

Fascinated by the tragic grandeur that songs ​can give to our appalling human fragility​, The Côr Of The Matter will help to alleviate your ordinary worries as  you come to appreciate your essential nothingness.  The tensions in your marriage and frustrations at work are not your problem alone, they are part of the structure of the universe. The Celts know this. They have always known this. Songs to make you aware of your insignificance. 

Visual artist Jacqui Stockdale will join the choir in performance. Translating the old Welsh words into visual art, the images that she creates shall be projected onto the faces and bodies of the choir.  The côr message of the songs remain, tradition evolves.

We hail from the Welsh speaking community, the Melbourne artistic community and are thrilled to include members from four Welsh Choirs based in Victoria. Our financial partners are the National Celtic Festival, The Melbourne Welsh Church and Cymru a’r Byd/Wales International. The Côr Of The Matter is committed to endangered language revival. The UN have declared an International Decade of Indigenous Languages and Welsh is listed as a threatened language.

For further information contact  Myfanwy at: thecorofthematter@gmail.com

The Boho, Jacqui Stockdale