The founder conductor of the reborn choir was D T Davies MBE, a musician of great repute throughout South Wales as conductor, adjudicator and accompanist. During his years as MD the Choir grew in number from 13 to 120 choristers in 1973, when it reached the first of many musical peaks in winning the Chief Male Choral competition at the Royal National Eisteddfod at Ruthin. In his honour, the choir instituted the D.T.Davies Award, presented each year to a young musician resident in the Borough.
Since then thechoir has maintained a consistently high standard of performance, taking its music world wide, first under D T Davies, then under Wynford Jones to Bulgaria, Holland and the USA. Radio and television work escalated, and most of the UK's major concert halls were visited.

In 1987 John Samuel took up the position, and under his expert care the Choir continued to extend its repertoire and reach new heights of excellence, with a full diary of concerts, both at home and abroad, and many performances for television and radio. After John's retirement, Annette Moore, who had been the Choir's accomapanist for eighteen years, took over the mantle towards the end of 1998. Annette continued to extend the repertoire, with popular new pieces regularly being added. Annette only agreed to take the post of MD as a favour until a new MD could be found, and in 1999 Gareth Ellis, who had been appointed accompanist when Annette took over as MD, was offered, and accepted, the post of Musical Director.
Gareth brought his own new ideas and repertoire to the Choir, and continued to demand the highest standards of committment and performance from the Choir. When Gareth took over as MD, the post of accompanist again became vacant, but not for long, as it was filled, most ably, by Kim Tilley, who completed the 'New Team'. Unfortunately, due to pressure of work, Kim had to relinquish the post of accompanist, and the post was again most ably filled by Stewart Roberts, who also accepted the post of Associate Musical Director.
In 2002, due to pressure of work, Gareth was unable to continue as Musical Director, and on his resignation in November, Stewart accepted the post. Stewart brought his wealth of both musical and teaching experience to the post, and maintained and strengthened the Choir’s tradition of competition and concert work. In addition, he continued to widen the repertoire of the choir and kept the choir fresh by continually presenting choristers with new challenges.
During this time, the choir was lucky to have the services of Catrin Rowlands as assistant accompanist, and on two occasions, one of which being Stewart and Zoe's wedding, Catrin also conducted the choir.
On Stewart's appointment as Musical Director, the post of accompanist again became vacant, but was soon ably filled by Jonathan Cooper, until pressure of work forced him, too, to resign. Luckily, one of Stewart's Pupils, 17-year-old Huw Evans, was available and took over the mantle as if he had been doing it all his life. Unfortunately for the choir, Huw accepted a place to study at Oxford University, but once more the choir was very lucky to appoint Darya Brill-Williams as accompanist, doubly lucky in fact as Darya is also able to step in as conductor if the need arises.
On Stewart's resignation in April 2007, due to promotion in his profession and a happy addition to the family, the Choir was very lucky to acquire David Last to the post of Musical Director. David was well known to the Choir for some time before his appointment, as they had worked with him on a number of occasions in the past, so it was an easy transition although there was much sadness at Stewart's departure. The Choir looks forward to a very bright future under David's direction, and he has already introduced new and challenging repertoire to keep the Choir on their toes. The 'home' calendar is healthily full for this year, although there might still be room to squeeze in an extra concert or two, and the choir is always looking for new concert venues.
The ‘Dowlais’ is a touring choir, having performed in Bulgaria, Canada, The U.S.A., Holland, Luxembourg, Italy, Ireland, Northern Cyprus, and France. In the course of one tour to Canada, the Choir represented Wales at the famous Massey Hall in the Toronto International Choral Festival, and this concert was recorded live, and is available on the Choir cd, ‘Live at Massey Hall’.
In March 2005 the Choir represented Wales in 'La Bretagne Fęte La Saint Patrick', held at the fabulous Palais Omnisports de Bercy in Paris, before audiences of 17000 people.
Later in that same year they represented Wales again at the even more prestigious Festival Interceltique in Lorient, Brittany, in August, this time performing ten concerts in as many days.
In September 2007, the Choir again travelled to Paris to represent Wales in the Breizh Touch Celtic Festival.
The Choir is always looking for new tour venues, and is always open to invitations. Click here for contact details.