Two Extraordinary Music Events Come to The Welfare Ystradgynlais This Spring
PITS TO PEWS:
Two Extraordinary Music Events Come to The Welfare Ystradgynlais This Spring
The Welfare in Ystradgynlais - itself a proud product of the mining community it has served for generations - is about to host two of the most distinctive and moving music events touring Wales in 2026. They could hardly be more different in style, yet each speaks to something profound: the power of music to illuminate the human experience, to connect us to place and to keep memory alive.
Gresford - Up From Underground | Friday 6 March, 7.30pm | At The Welfare Ystradgynlais
For a Miners' Welfare Hall, few events could carry more weight than this. Gresford - Up From Underground is a full-scale opera commemorating the Gresford colliery disaster of September 22, 1934, when 266 men and boys were killed in a catastrophic underground explosion and fire - one of the worst mining tragedies in British history.
Created by Wrexham brothers Jonathan and Robert Guy - founders of the NEW Sinfonia orchestra - with words by poet Grahame Davies from Coedpoeth and direction by Ruth Evans, the opera was premiered to an emotional reception at the North Wales International Music Festival in 2024, moving audiences to tears. It has since been shortlisted for an Ivor Novello Award and, this year, for a Royal Philharmonic Society Award - widely regarded as the Oscars of classical music.
As one of just two South Wales venues on the tour, The Welfare welcomes Gresford - Up From Underground as part of a Wales-wide journey through former coalfield areas - a deliberate act of tribute and remembrance. Director Ruth Evans explains: "This is very much a story about Gresford but it is a universal story about adversity in mining communities where there was oppression with people being taken for granted. Connecting around Wales at those venues is about us bringing this story to other mining communities because the themes run through all of them."
Conductor Robert Guy puts it simply: "People can be forgotten sometimes and it's really important to keep the memory of the miners alive."
Steve Knightley: Sanctuary - Songs from Sacred Spaces | Thursday 12 March, 7.30pm | At St Cynog’s Church, Ystradgynlais
A week later, The Welfare welcomes an entirely different kind of musical journey. Award-winning singer-songwriter Steve Knightley - a founding member of Show of Hands, one of England's most celebrated folk acts - brings his intimate new solo tour Sanctuary - Songs from Sacred Spaces to Ystradgynlais.
Renowned for songs rooted in history, landscape and a fierce sense of place, Steve has curated a tour within churches, chapels and historic spaces chosen for their atmosphere, beauty and acoustic warmth. St Cynog's Church provides the setting for this Ystradgynlais date - spaces where, as Steve sees it, sound lingers and lyrics resonate in ways a conventional concert hall simply cannot match.
Stripping his music back to its essence, Steve revisits material shaped by influences ranging from Bob Dylan and William Blake to the English folk canon and his own extensive catalogue. Each performance also features special guest Dan Salvatore, whose hand-forged handpan instruments create shimmering, meditative soundscapes - bell-like tones that weave around Steve's voice and guitar, transforming each venue into a calming, peaceful sound world.
The result is an evening designed to be immersive, reflective and quietly powerful: a genuine sanctuary at the start of spring.
Tickets and information: www.thewelfare.co.uk