Rising trombone star Rhiannon, a Year 10 pupil at Haberdashers Monmouth School for Girls is gearing up for her debut performance at the BBC Proms on Sunday 12^th August. 

Rhiannon passed her Grade 8 with Distinction in March 2009 aged 11, at 13 she become the youngest trombonist in the UK to become an Associate of the Trinity College London (ATCL)  and last November was runner up in the Arts Category of AXA Ambition Awards.  Now, aged just 15, Rhiannon will be performing in front of a packed house at the Royal Albert Hall, London with the National Youth Wind Orchestra of Great Britain in Prom No. 40 of the esteemed Henry Wood Promenade Series.

“I can’t wait to play at the BBC Proms,” Rhiannon explains.  “I’ve been lucky enough to play at the Royal Albert Hall four times for the National Festival of Music for Youth Schools Proms with my County youth groups but this will be my first performance at the BBC Proms.  It’s an honour to be playing at the Proms but what makes this performance even more special is that we will be premiering a brand new composition by Gavin Higgins who is from Parkend, which is very near where I live. ”

Gavin’s piece is called “Der Aufstand” which means riot in German and it was inspired by the London riots last year as Gavin now lives in Brixton and experienced the turmoil first hand.  It’s very different from the usual Wind Orchestra repertoire (and the rest of the programme we will be playing) as it’s quite aggressive but it’s got lots for the brass players to do - you can tell Gavin is a brass player by the scoring, it’s a very loud piece in places! 

The National Youth Wind Orchestra of Great Britain’s Prom will be live on BBC radio 3 from 3.00 on Sunday 12^th August 2012.