A concert audience just about outnumbered by the performers it came to hear might be said to have been well served.

It wasn't only the numerical strength of the youngsters at the 27th annual Christmas extravaganza organised by Gwent Music Support Service that impressed but also its illustration of what this currently hard-pressed organisation can produce against the odds.

The Service, which runs extra-curricular activities for Newport, Torfaen, Monmouthshire and Blaenau Gwent schools, is in the middle of a painful re-shaping because its public funding has been cut. At one time its very existence was threatened. But look out for a bright, new re-branding. Hopefully it will attract financial support from other sources to make up for the deficit.

This annual event for the Newport end of the operation, presented by the city’s St Woolos Rotary Club each year, continuously sings volumes for its determination and undiminished mentoring skills.

With emphasis on younger students, this year’s event nevertheless capped another busy and successful twelve months for the Service in its appearances nationally.

Six hundred musicians appeared at this concert, including harp, Celtic and guitar groups as well as a massed junior choir, the Greater Gwent Schools Brass Band and the swelling strings of Caerleon’s Isca Linea Symphonia. Senior, junior and intermediate winds from the Newport Centre completed a canvas showing how young musicians begin and steadily improve. A telling advertisement.

The names of three musicians were pulled out of the hat to win prize vouchers from among those who’d recorded perfect attendance at their weekly sessions. So let Jenny Prosser, Rosie Sharp and Ella Morgan-Dennis stand for all who took part so enthusiastically on the night.

The programme was full of delights, from the obbligato brass in the opening community carol to the sideline saxophone interpolations of tutor Ceri Rees in the guitar ensemble’s version of Slade’s Merry Christmas Everyone. The guitarists, under Steve Jenkins, indicated the range of music undertaken by the Service, and Mr Rees’s own ensemble, the Senior Wind Symphonia, demonstrated his and its jazz credentials.

This is probably the best way of introducing young people to the rigours of learning to play an instrument: by giving them music they’re familiar with from film and TV. Or by introducing them to the flavour of folk traditions, as with Donald Stewart's Celtic band. But this being the festive season, there was much Christmas fare, including the harpists’ yuletide medley, the Linea Symphonia’s carols and Cantique de Noel and the inevitable Jingle Bells by the brass band.

Perhaps the best advertisement for the respect the GMSS gathers from the multitudes it teaches was the impeccable behaviour of the junior choir - pupils from Caerleon Endowed, Eveswell, Glasllwch and Marshfield primary schools. They had to sit through the concert in the glare of the lights as well as perform themselves. Good on them and their staff. Good on everyone involved on the night.