Tredegar Band has just completed their latest musical initiative thanks to a grant from the Welsh Government led 'Connected Communities: Loneliness and Social Isolation Fund'.

The band worked in partnership with the National Orchestra of Wales to provide access to live performances of classical and brass band music.

Aim to inspire

The aim was to inspire local children to take up peripatetic music lessons in local schools and hopefully to join local community brass bands — including Tredegar's own Learner and Community Band ensembles.

The project has already seen players from the band join forces with the brass section of the orchestra to provide a live broadcast to 65 schools and over 3200 pupils across Wales, as well as link up with education specialist Paul Fisher to provide access to his fantastic teaching aid videos which will now be accessed for free through the band's website.

Orchestral trip

The ambitious project was completed last week when 50 school children were taken to see the National Orchestra of Wales perform at the Hoddinott Hall at the Cardiff's Millennium Centre.

There they enjoyed performances of Glinka's 'Ruslan and Lyudmila' and 'The Little Train of the Caipira' by Villa Lobos, to Britten's 'Four Sea Interludes' and Mussorgsky's 'Pictures at an Exhibiton' — the latter accommodated by drawings made in real time by artist James Mayhew.

At the end the children were joined by NoW trumpet stars Philippe Schartz and Robert Samuel who presented them with one of the sketches of Mussorgsky's 'Gnome'.

Thrilled

National Orchestra of Wales Education Producer, Beatrice Carey told 4BR: "We were so thrilled to be involved and to round things off by welcoming the youngsters from the Tredegar area to our special 'Drawn to Music' school's concert.

They were such a fantastic audience and saw the full symphony orchestra in action alongside a live artist, which we hope gave them such fun. Our thanks go to our friends at Tredegar Band for making it all possible and we hope to welcome more youngster from the Tredegar area to future events."

Incredibly, not one of the children had ever heard a live performance before and nearly all had never even been to Cardiff to the Millennium Centre. Their reactions were incredibleIan Porthouse

Transfixed

Speaking about the initiative, Tredegar MD, Ian Porthouse told 4BR: "This has been a great project to work on with three strands which we hope will inspire youngsters to take up brass band and classical music in future.

Incredibly, not one of the children had ever heard a live performance before and nearly all had never even been to Cardiff to the Millennium Centre. Their reactions were incredible — absolutely transfixed by what they heard and to meet Philippe and Rob.

It really brought home the inspirational qualities of music making, and my thanks go to everyone involved in the project. It's been such an uplifting experience which we hope will trigger a great response."