‘Walking in the Air’ – Howard Blake’s iconic theme song from the classic Christmas film The Snowman – shot fellow Welshman Aled Jones to fame in 1985 when he was a boy treble. Cai has often been compared to a young Aled, who himself called Cai: “a bright young vocal talent…he has one of those voices that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end.”
Last month, Cai launched a highly successful crowdfunding campaign to record the beautiful and touching song ‘Wherever You Are’ by the renowned Welsh composer Paul Mealor [who composed music for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s wedding in 2011] to raise money for the children’s brain tumour charity, Robbie’s Rehab. It is a cause close to Cai’s heart: he will donate all his royalties from the single to the charity, set up by Robbie Keville, a pupil at Cai’s previous school, Edgeborough. Robbie set up the charity after he lost his mum to breast cancer five years before he died, aged ten, of a malignant brain tumour. In an inspiring case of kids helping kids, the chorister from Farnham, and pupil at King Edward’s, Witley, wants to give something back after his recent astonishing success.
Cai Thomas says: “Donating the royalties to Robbie’s Rehab was an obvious choice. Robbie went to my school and he also loved music. In a small way I can now help Robbie, who was never able to fulfil his talents, keep giving to kids who still have the opportunity to fulfil their own.”
Cai is joined on ‘Wherever You Are’ by the Choristers of St Thomas-on-The Bourne in Farnham where he learned to sing at the age of seven. They invited local children to discover the fun and benefits of the great UK choral tradition by asking them to join the recording.
Last year Cai raised an astounding £30,000 from backers worldwide in his first crowdfunding campaign to record his debut album ‘Seren’ [released on Rubicon Classics in March 2019] which was made album of the week at both Classic FM [presenter John Suchet called him “a brilliant young talent”] and Scala Radio. ‘Seren’ held its place in the UK specialist classical charts for 10 weeks. Although this is his final recording as a treble, Cai has a promising musical future in store and is in high demand having recently recorded soundtracks for TV and film in both the UK and US.