Our Roots

In 2008 an idea for a project linking the Rhondda Valleys with Townships in Cape Town was born, spearheaded by Valleys Kids, a community development charity, committed to broadening horizons and releasing potential.

The Mzansi Cymru Project was a spectacular, multicultural project that was 4 years in the making and culminated in ‘Torchbearers’ a production with over 180 performers from Wales and South Africa, as part of the Wales’ Cultural Olympiad in 2012, in both Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff and ArtsCape in Cape Town. It melded drama, music, dance and circus in a heart-breaking, uplifting love story, which began in the apartheid era in South Africa.

An embryonic choir was forged in the South Wales Valleys, led by natural voice practitioners, including members of Only Men Aloud, to underpin the musical spine of the project. Amy Jenkins a participant who joined the choir, with an extraordinary voice and an ambition to one day to lead a choir.

In 2012, that ambition became a reality when the Mzansi Cymru Choir became More Than a Song Community Choir and Amy has been part of its journey as choir leader since then.

This in turn has been the catalyst for creating More Than Music Cymru charity to develop a wider portfolio of activities and opportunities, beyond the existence of the choir and to extend its geographic reach.

Amy Jenkins is now an experienced and qualified natural voice practitioner and is the creative deriving force in More than Music Cymru.