Husband and wife singers, the tenor Gwyn Hughes Jones and the soprano Stacey Wheeler will star in a prestigious concert at Bangor Cathedral on Saturday 18 May to celebrate the centenary of the charity Save the Children.

As the charity’s Ambassadors in Wales, the world-famous tenor from Llanbedrgoch and the soprano from Pennsylvania will perform a selection of arias and popular duets alongside the multi-talented musician and pianist Annette Bryn Parri, Trio and Ysgol Gymuned Penisarwaun School Choir.

The concert will feature a once in a lifetime opportunity to hear a live performance of the song ‘There is Hope’ which has been composed especially for the event by An-nette Bryn Parri and her husband, Gwyn Parri. The song will be available on CD which will be sold during the concert.

The concert is being held exactly a century, minus a day, to the event which estab-lished Save the Children on May 19, 1919 at the Royal Albert Hall by two sisters from Shropshire, Eglantyne Jebb and Dorothy Buxton.

Incensed by images she had seen of starving children in Germany and Austria follow-ing the First World War, Eglantyne Jebb went on to defend every child’s rights – who-ever they are, wherever they are – by writing the Declaration of the Rights of the Child in 1924 which led to the creation of the United Nations Convention on the Right of the Child in 1989.

Save the Children started working in Wales in the 1930s helping families in the south Wales valleys during the Great Depression by opening open air nurseries in the Brynmawr and Dowlais communities in Merthyr Tydfil. The charity was also the first to offer free milk in schools before it became UK Government policy in the 1940s.

Today, Save the Children works in 120 countries around the world including here in Wales, helping families and children to thrive in their vital early years.

Gwyn Hughes Jones and his wife Stacey Wheeler have been the charity’s Ambassa-dors in Wales since 2012 and have performed in many awareness raising and fund-raising concerts. Stacey worked for the charity for a period, leading a programme which built strong relationships between parents, schools and communities for the benefit of the child. Being Ambassadors also gives them a rare opportunity to perform together during a busy working schedule performing and travelling the world with Opera companies.

Gwyn Hughes Jones said: “We are really looking forward to the concert and to per-forming together as the opportunity doesn’t often arise. It is part of one’s social con-science to want as many children and young people as possible to have the oppor-tunity to grow up happy, healthy and safe. And it is important that we realise our re-sponsibility to be part of the answer to make this world a better place for them to live in.”

Stacey added: “I have seen the great work the charity does here in Wales and I was inspired. It is lovely to be able to use our voices as singers and Ambassadors to raise money and awareness of the opportunities Save the Children gives children here in Wales and abroad to reach their full potential.”

Louise Davies, Head of Save the Children – Wales concluded: “We are starting Save the Children’s centenary celebrations on a high note with a spectacular concert fea-turing artists of such a high calibre. It promises to be an evening of music to remem-ber and we are extremely grateful to them both and all the other artists for raising awareness and funds towards the charity’s work. We are also very grateful to our volunteers from the Save the Children Branch in Anglesey for their assistance in or-ganising the evening.

“With everything that’s happening in the world today it would be easy to look pessimis-tically to the future. But all the work the charity successfully achieves across the world defending children’s rights is heartening. As the song says, ‘There is Hope’.”
Save the Children’s Centenary Concert: There is Hope, Saturday, May 18, 7.00pm, Bangor Cathedral

All profits from the concert and sale of the CD ‘There is Hope’ will go towards funding Save the Children projects abroad and in Wales.

Tickets are priced at £20 and £5 for children and can be bought local book shops:
• Palas Print, Caernarfon
• Awen Menai, Porthaethwy
• Bys a Bawd, Llanrwst
• Siop Lewis, Llandudno

Or by contacting the Save the Children in Wales office on 02920 803253/ 07900214959