Past Concerts & Fundraising
Since our first performance in March 2013 we have put on 53 concerts and events, building a large and wide-ranging repertoire of over 300 pieces as well as raising more than £70,000 for charities and other good causes.
Our first concert
Caritas’s first concert was held in the beautiful medieval setting of Ewenny Priory on 7th March 2013. Music included Allegri’s ‘Miserere’, Purcell’s ‘Let mine eyes run down with tears’, Lotti’s ‘Crucifixus’ and Gibbons ‘O clap your hands’ as well as some more recent works by Walton, Vaughan Williams and Rutter. At this concert, we were delighted to welcome one of Britain’s leading young composers, Tommy Hewitt Jones. Tommy worked in Hollywood and composed the Olympic Mascot theme 2012. We performed Tommy’s ‘Lead me O Lord’ at the concert, an anthem written for the Royal School of Church Music.
Having set out with a plan to raise £1,000 at every concert for a charity or other good cause, we reached this target in our first concert. There was much interest in the new choir, the repertoire and in the charity fund-raising with the result that the concert was sold out two weeks before it took place.
Past concerts and money raised
Here is a list of all Caritas concerts, venues, amounts raised and charities/organisations supported. If you wish to donate money to Caritas or to one of the charities we have supported, please get in touch with us via our Contact page.
Grand Total Raised
£70,369 from 53 events
£1,325 average raised for each event
Supporting 67 different charities and good causes
(correct as of 24th March 2024)
2013
March: Ewenny Priory – £1,000 – NSPCC
June: St German’s, Roath – £1,300 – WaterAid
July: St Michael’s College – £600 – National Garden Scheme
November: Newport Cathedral – £1,010 – St David’s Hospice, Newport & St Woolos Choral Foundation
December: Cardiff County Club – £1,961 – Lady Taverners
December: Dyffryn House – £1,016 – National Trust
2014
April: St Martin’s Roath – £4,050* – End Polio Now
April: St Mary’s Swansea – £800 – Maggie’s Cancer & St Mary’s Foundation
June: St Augustine’s, Penarth – £1,500 – Making Music Changing lives
November: Dewi Sant, Cardiff – £1,000 – Mind
December: St Nicholas, The Vale – £1,300 – 2 Wish upon a Star
2015
March: St Teilo, Cardiff – £1,060 – Huggard Centre for the Homeless
June: Ewenny Priory – £1,220 – Anthony Nolan Trust
Photo (right): Huw Riden
2016
February: St Michael’s College – £1,030 – Shelter Cymru & The Little Princess Trust
March: Abergavenny – £400 – Music in Hospitals
April: Dewi Sant – £1,023 – Diabetes UK Cymru (£700) and Dewi Sant pipe organ (£323)
June: St John’s Cardiff – £250** – Ty Hafan (Festival special concert)
June: All Saints Barry – £1,200 – Ty Hafan & All Saints roof (£600 each)
October: Peterston-super-Ely – £864 – Church roof & Children in Yemen
November: Swansea – £840 – St Mary’s Music Trust & Ty Olwen Hospice
December: St German’s, Roath – £1,164 – Cardiff Food Bank and St German’s organ fund
2017
March: Newport Cathedral – £1,122 – Mind (Newport) & Friends of Newport Cathedral Choir
May: Ewenny – £1,300 – Defibrillator / Anthony Nolan Trust
June: Lower Machen – £1,018 – LM Festival, Enable (Caerphilly CC)
September: St Thomas the Martyr, Bristol – £1,150 – The Churches Conservation Trust
December: Penarth Pier Pavilion – £1,505 – Penarth Arts & Crafts (PACL) and Cardiff Samaritans
2018
February: St Michael’s Centre, Llandaff – £1235.55 – Nekemte Christian Education College, Ethiopia
April: St German’s, Roath – 1,250 NSPCC – (£750) and Lasallian Developing World Projects (£500)
July: Beulah United Reformed Church, Rhiwbina – £600 – British Red Cross Syria Appeal
October: All Saints, Penarth – £1660.45 – St Peter’s Church Old Cogan (£819.63) & Gofal (£840.82)
December: Priory Church of St Mary, Usk - £1300 - Hope and Homes for Children & Priory Church of St Mary
December: Insole Court, Llandaff - £1376 - Headway & Insole Court
2019
March: St Michael’s Centre, Llandaff - £1128.02 - The Wallich
March: Brecon Cathedral - £1324.26 - Tenovus, Brecon Cathedral
June: Ewenny Priory - £1678.77 - The Alzheimer’s Society (£1542), Ewenny Priory (£136.77)
July: St Davids Cathedral, Pembrokeshire - £845 RSPB, St Davids Choral Foundation
September: St Mary's Nolton, Bridgend - £1400 'Croeso Cowbridge' Syrian Refugee project
November: All Saints Church, Barry - £1315 - Friends of the Earth (£600) & All Saints organ renovation project (£715)
December: St Margaret’s Church, Roath, Cardiff - £1503.95 'Welsh Hearts' & St Margaret’s Church reredos resoration project
2020
October: Llamau STAY:UP Event
November: 'Christmas with Caritas' online recordings - £1,450 - Cardiff Samaritans (£1,300) & St German's Church, Roath (£150)
Photo (right): Nick Treharne
2021
June: St Martin's Roath, Cardiff - £1300 - Llamau
October: The Cardiff Oratory - £1273 - Welsh Schools Athletics Association (£600.29) & St Alban Oratory School (£672.71)
December: The Cardiff Oratory - £1410 - Cardiff Foodbank
2022
March: Llandaff Cathedral, Cardiff - £3299.48 - The Huggard Centre, The Wallich & Llandaff Cathedral (£2299.48), DEC Ukraine Humanitarian Fund (£1000)
June: St Augustine's, Penarth - £1300 - Shelter Cymru (£900), St Augustine’s Church (£400)
July: St David's Cathedral wedding - £1500 - Guide Dogs Charity
November: St German's, Roath - £1700 - Wales Air Ambulance Charitable Trust (£1550)
December: St Michael and All Angels Church, Lower Machen - £2020 - Ty Hafan (£760); DEC Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal (£760); Lower Machen Music (£200); Church (£200): Parish (£100)
2023
March: Newport Cathedral - £1300 - Eden Gate Charity (£1100), Newport Cathedral (£200)
July: Thomas Hewitt-Jones & Susanna Gray-Jones birthday anthem for Lindsay Gray's 70th - Cardiff Samaritans (£1350)
November: Llandaff Cathedral - £1771 - Making Music Changing Lives (657), Christian Aid (£557), Llandaff Cathedral Music Dept (£557)
December: Nazareth House-£1700-Cardiff Samaritans (£850) and Cardiff Foodbank (£850)
2024
March: Ewenny Priory- £1648 (£1328 to the Peterston and St. Fagan's Branch of the NSPCC and £320 to Ewenny Priory)
*The exceptional £4,050 at St Martin’s Roath in April 2014 was due to the additional input from the Bill Gates Foundation which adds on twice the amount raised in respects of specific charities of which ‘End Polio Now’ is one; happily, we had easily exceeded the usual £1,000 target even before the Bill Gates addition.
**The concert at St John’s Cardiff (June 2016) was part of the Cardiff Festival of Voice – 18 choirs in 18 venues – hence the £250 fee rather than fund-raising (entrance to the concerts was free of charge).
Clockwise: St Mary's Nolton, Bridgend, September 2019; St David's Cathedral, July 2019; St Michael’s Centre, Llandaff, January 2018; Come and Sing, All Saints Penarth, October 2018