The Only Boys Aloud Academi are the main act representing Wales at the Festival Interceltique de Lorient, 5 – 22 August 2022!
The Festival Interceltique de Lorient is the largest festival in Brittany and France, attracting an average of 750,000 visitors each year. The event showcases more than 4,500 artists from 11 Celtic nations.
Returning after a three-year break, 25 selected members from the Only Boys Aloud (OBA) choirs took part in a week-long residential Academi at Moreton Hall, Oswestry 25-29 July, and are showcasing their work as the main act representing Wales at Lorient this year.
The Academi was first established in 2011 to offer more expert and individual tuition to members of Only Boys Aloud (OBA) who have shown the greatest commitment and musical potential.
Our Creative Director, Craig Yates, said:
“The boys have been working incredibly hard, working for over 12 hours each day during the Academi course at Moreton Hall. As well as the concert and performance preparation they have had individual singing lessons, music theory classes and movement sessions.”
The Only Boys Aloud Academi Choir will be the only Welsh choir at the festival, and will perform on four nights at Le Stade Lorient as part of the closing show – Le Grande Sectacle du Festival. The Academi choir will host a total of nine performances at the festival, with two additional OBA concerts at Le Palais and at Musiques et Danses des Payes Celtes Lorient, and three performances at the Welsh Pavilion as part of Lorient’s festival line up.
In an ambitious repertoire of songs ranging from Schubert to Sondheim amongst various other composers, the choir will be performing in six different languages including Hebrew, Latin and Xhosa (a South African language), with the majority of their showcase in Welsh.
Academi member, Baritone, Celt Llewelyn-Jones, said:
“It’s been a pleasure meeting everyone and being part of a team, sharing skills and interests that we’ve all got. I’ve really enjoyed learning different languages and styles and can’t wait for Lorient.”
A full list of the OBA Academi performances at Lorient can be found here.
We would like to thank The Mosawi Foundation for their support of the OBA Academi 2022. They are the sole funders of the project.
