Valleys Kids

In arctic conditions South African jazz trumpeter Claude Deppa took seven hours and six trains to get from London to the Soar Centre for the World Premiere of Symffoni Z performed by the Mzansi Cymru project, but when he arrived temperatures rocketed.

In a rushed rehearsal, Claude's first jaw dropping touch of his trumpet left fellow instrumentalists in Paula Gardiner's Extraordinary Orchestra open mouthed in admiration and incredulity. But it was inspiration that spread through the thirty five piece band and thirty strong choir like a bushfire and lifted the roof of the Soar Centre in a scintillating evening performance of Symffoni Z, mysteriously titled, The Day Stanley Baker Died The Zulus Rapped On Llanwonno Mountain.

In a rollercoaster hour of music, movement and drama, the riddle of writer Larry Allan's story was teasingly unravelled as two actors playing Thembisile and Gerwyn, two extras in the film Zulu, and a boisterous chorus of valley voices played by young people from Valleys Kids Artworks, depicted a tragic love story against the dramatic backdrop of South Africa's troubled history. All of this wrapped up in a glorious sweep of rousing, evocative and often poignant music that climaxed in the full company's ice breaking and spine tingling rendition of Paula Gardiner's climactic anthemic song - Fear Will Never Keep Us Apart.

A night to remember, and one to be repeated and not to be missed.