The Arts Council of Wales ‘Night Out’ initiative, which offers financial support to voluntary sector promoters to help bring high class artistic projects and concerts to local communities, has gained widespread critical acclaim from all factions of Welsh political life.

And with the outlook for the arts in Wales reportedly bleak following the post election outcome, this concert, part of a Dinas Powys Festival which has also gained acclaim for its eclectic scope of attractions, would have given any cold hearted bean-counting apparatchik in Cardiff Bay food for thought.

Eclectic talent

Following on from concerts given during the week from music students from the RWCMD, jazz combos, male voice choirs, children’s entertainers, trombone ensembles and leading welsh vocalists, Tredegar lived up to their reputation for innovative programming by including the talents of young singer Siwan Henderson.

Upbeat

It was typically upbeat entertainment fayre - although played with a precise bubble and fizz approach that kept the audience on the edge of their seats throughout.

‘Colours in Rain’ and the march ‘Call of the Brave’ set the tone, followed by fleet-footed, ‘Brassman’s Holiday’, ‘Folk Festival’ and ‘Nightingale Dances’ whilst the second also kept the pulses racing with the likes of ‘All Night Long’ and ‘Glorifico Aeternum’.

Polished soloists

Interspersed came a trio of polished soloists on fine form; Dewi Griffiths, Ian Roberts and Matthew White delivering ‘Georgia on My Mind’, ‘La Califfa’ and ‘Cairdeas’ with nonchalant aplomb.

Star

However, on this occasion the star of the show was 19 year old Siwan Henderson - who is soon to take her place at the prestigious Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in London.

She delivered a quartet of wonderfully crafted show tunes - from ‘Somewhere over the Rainbow’ and ‘Maybe this Time’ to ‘Somewhere’ from ‘West Side Story' and ‘A Change in Me’ that focussed a rare talent for intuitive expression and lyrical emotion.

Swagger

With the audience long since won over and asking for more, the evangelical zeal of ‘Can't Nobody Do Me Like Jesus’ - which even in the compact confines of the local Parish Hall had the joyous swagger of a evangelical preacher’s call to an American bible belt congregation - left everyone, including any newly elected politician, with an extra Arts Council of Wales ‘Night Out’ spring in their step.

Dave Banwell