A PROJECT which brings music to nearly 90 people with learning disabilities in North Wales has won the very first award of its kind from the Bryn Terfel Foundation.

Thanks to an ex-head teacher and the William Mathias Music Centre youngsters and adults with learning disabilities have become Hidden Talents (Doniau Cudd) and get free music sessions every week alongside trained musicians.

Their last big performance was at the prestigious North Wales International Music Festival in St Asaph Cathedral.

Hidden Talents received the Bryn Terfel Foundation award for promoting the arts in social care.

The award, made for the first time, came at a glittering black tie presentation night at Cardiff City Hall during the 11^th Wales Care Awards, run in conjunction with Care Forum Wales.

Musician Arfon Wyn was headmaster at Beaumaris primary school, where he welcomed youngsters with learning disabilities “with open arms.”

Ten years ago he met with former director of the William Mathias centre, Elinor Bennett Wigley and administrator Meinir Llwyd Roberts, now the director, to discuss his idea for integrated music sessions for people with learning disabilities with fellow musicians of the same age.

“Arfon came to us 10 years ago with his vision. He had been headmaster at a special school and felt that once they left the school environment there was a very limited opportunity to participate in music,” said Meinir.

She added: “We were thrilled to receive the award, especially an award with Bryn Terfel’s name on it!

“It was a lovely occasion and fantastic for us. Arfon, myself and Elinor organised the first of the sessions 10 years ago this year and it’s great to get that recognition.

“Arfon has dedicated such a lot of time over 10 years and has a wonderful way of leading the sessions and it’s great for his work to be acknowledged in this way. We started in 2003 with a class of eight with learning disabilities and now we have three weekly sessions for adults in Caernarfon and in Prestatyn and Rhyl with Denbighshire Arts Service and Pwllheli once a month.

“Also a year ago we set up a junior version of Hidden Talents because we were getting requests from Gwynedd Social Services. Now we have about 85-90 people a week attending sessions.”

Students from Bangor University and the William Mathias centre help out at the music sessions.

“Arfon is the main leader for all of them but other musicians work alongside Arfon. The original Caernarfon group which meets at Galeri Caernarfon has some of the same members as it did 10 years ago. We get funding from Arts Council for Wales and Gwynedd,” said Meinir.

Arfon added: “I took early retirement about 18 months ago to concentrate on the music and now we have a Hidden Talents 1 and 2 and a youth group. The performances are totally improvised; no performance is the same as the last one.

“I start with a basic folk song because a lot of classical musicians have used folk music, it’s not childish and it is uplifting. I have to make the arrangement in my head and see what happens. Singing is the most difficult thing for someone with learning disability so I make sure we get a good singer to give the performance integrity.

“Meinir has been excellent in finding us funding. One of our biggest costs is taxis to get people to the venues.

“Winning the award was an amazing surprise and well worth making the trip to Cardiff for.”

Meinir said: “When the group performs they have a marked effect on the people watching. They performed at Cardiff City Hall in June, at the Senedd in 2011.

“At the William Mathias Centre we were approached by the Alzheimer’s Society about their Singing for the Brain programme and we provide tutors for that which has been very successful.”

Arfon is also working on the Alzheimer’s project. “I am busier now than I ever was as a head teacher, but I’m happier and it is less stressful,” he said.

A historic plum tree with its roots in the Middle Ages could soon be given its own special regional identification status.

Research suggests that the Denbigh Plum was developed in the town by medieval monks and spread across North Wales and into England.

It is due to be celebrated at the fifth annual Denbigh Plum Feast in the Vale of Clwyd town on the weekend of Saturday and Sunday, November 2 and 3.

In the meantime organisers of the Plum Feast are seeking protected geographical indication status for the succulent fruit whose background has been researched by historian Helen Williams, from Mold.

Helen, a BA History graduate from Glyndwr University, has spent six months digging into the past of the fruit and has come up with a mountain of evidence to support the campaign which would see the Denbigh Plum given the same recognition as Melton Mowbray pork pies, Stilton cheese, Arbroath smokies and Newcastle Brown Ale.

The bid has been welcomed by Plum Feast sponsor Mario Kreft, of Pendine Park Care Homes, Wrexham, who said: “The Denbigh Plum would be the first Welsh fruit to be granted this special status and that’s something to be celebrated.

“The quality of food from the Vale of Clwyd is wonderful and that’s what the Denbigh Plum Feast is all about.

“Recognition for the Denbigh plum would be a real boost to food producers in Denbighshire and help put them on the national food map.”

Helen said: “The earliest record of fruit-growing in Denbigh is in the 13^th century when the monks at the friary were grafting fruit trees which almost certainly included plums.

“The friary is long gone and only ruins remain but it was in Abbey Road in the town and there are still some very old Denbigh plum trees in a garden there which could possibly be the descendants of those developed by the monks.

“Fruit orchards would have developed in the area and would have been supplying the markets of Denbigh until Victorian times though before the 19^th century not much is known until the late 18^th century.

“But you can trace the Denbigh plum as a nursery tree which would have been sold to gardeners and also through the Vale of Clwyd Horticultural Society which held a show every year and prizes were awarded to the best Denbigh plums.

“The first mention of it in literature was in the 1840s but it would already have been very old by then and certainly it was growing in the gardens at Erddig, near Wrexham, because metal plate labels have been found with Denbigh seedling plum stamped on them.”

The origins of the Denbigh plum may have become muddied thanks to one of Britain’s best known fruit growers, Richard Cox, of Cox’s Orange Pippin apple fame, who appears to have remarketed the plum as the Cox’s Emperor in the first half of the 19^th century.

Ian Sturrock, the only commercial grower of the Denbigh plum , who is a longtime supporter of the Denbigh Plum Feast, reckons that references to Cox’s Emperor plum mention its origins being “confused” but it is likely to be linked to the Denbigh fruit.

Helen agrees and said: “I think it may have been a marketing ploy by Mr Cox but I am sure the Denbigh Plum is a distinctive species of fruit which was developed here in the Vale of Clwyd and continues to be grown here and is becoming more and more popular.

This year’s Denbigh Plum Feast will again celebrate the fruit in a local food fiesta which will also feature top Welsh chef Aled Williams, Head Chef and Manager of Beaumaris’s acclaimed Cennin Restaurant and Moo Baa Oinc café, delicatessen and butchery.

The 31-year-old culinary star who has worked with Gordon Ramsay and Heston Blumenthal is looking forward to sampling the Denbigh Plum himself and said: “Our produce is amazing and that’s why I’m taking part in the Denbigh Plum Feast – it’s a native fruit from a corner of North Wales and it’s vital to preserve those signature foods.”

There are a host of other attractions over the weekend with Denbigh Chocolate Shop, on Vale Street, Denbigh, serving up a Welsh take on a French favourite, dried plums soaked in Welsh whisky and coated in chocolate while the Denbigh Brewery will have a Plum Ale to sample.

There will be more than 50 stalls selling a variety of food products, including plum bread, jam and pies, as well as arts and crafts from Rhodd Dinbych, who have helped organise the event.

There will also be a stage where local bands and musicians will play and a storytelling tent, buskers, and on Sunday, guided walks and children’s activities in Denbigh Castle.

Ian Sturrock will be offering advice on cultivating the tree which is available locally from Green Fingers Garden Centre, in Denbigh.

The Plum Feast kicks off on Saturday (November 2) at 9am in the town centre and goes on until 4pm while on Sunday there will be a series of walks and trails including a Heritage Walk and a Halloween Walk for 4-16 year olds.