Saturday evening was a big occasion for the resident choir of the Gwent Dragons as they made the significant transition from being a group whose primary function has so far been to provide the preliminaries to rugby matches at Rodney Parade(albeit that they were officially judged Wales' best in this capacity since winning a televised competition in 2007) and giving guest concert appearances, to being the main centre of attention before a packed audience.

No longer will the slightly derogatory term 'Community' Choir,with its slightly apologetic connotation of inferiority (I blame Gareth Malone), suffice. Here is a choir who know what they are about and have clearly blossomed under the directorship of their conductor Helen Robbins.

The four parts were balanced and sang with confidence, sure intonation and a clear sense of style as they made the transition from their 'bread and butter' repertoire of Welsh hymntunes to '60's pop (where I felt they were at their best) in 'Barbara Ann' and 'California Dreamin'' and folk material such as the 'Shoshone lovesong' and the Zulu traditional 'Siyahamba'.

Accompanist Colin Beynon gave excellent unobtrusive support throughout and also provided a lovely arrangement of 'Dim ond meirch y mor'.

Good contrast was provided by a moving performance from the Llantarnam School Deaf Choir. Russel Jones Junior gave us his twist on Michael Buble. Most memorably,there was a group of songs from the evening's youngest performers -the Penygarn School Community Choir.

It should not be forgotten that events such as this raise very significant amounts for charities in this country. In this case more than £2000 was raised for St. Anne's Hospice.