PROMISING musical prodigy, Rhiannon Symonds, has become the youngest ever brass player to be called up to The National Youth Wind Orchestra of Wales and won her place performing with a day-old broken wrist.

Rhiannon, aged just 12, did her trombone audition with her supporting arm in plaster after slipping on ice outside her home in Yorkley.

"It was absolutely perfect timing," says mum, Kristyan, a music teacher who also trains the Forest of Dean Area Wind Band. "One day before the audition she slipped on the steps, put her hand out in front of her, and snapped the radius and ulna. And given that she's barely old enough to audition, she's done fantastically well."

Rhiannon, a pupil at Haberdashers' Monmouth School for Girls, passed her grade 8 in trombone last year and is also studying the euphonium. This despite the fact that she'd never showed any interest in music until four years ago.

"Never showed any interest at all," said Kristyan. "She literally picked up an old trombone sat on the piano at home, had a go and just loved it. It was her instrument."

Nevertheless, being a 12-year-old, Rhiannon is not entirely sure whether to make music her career.

"She loves to sings, loves drama and English. I think at the moment she's more interested in doing something drama and English based."

•The Forest of Dean Area Wind Band will be recording a new CD of their music – the first since 2005 – in May at a recording studios in Ashbourne