Welsh Musical Theatre Young Singer of the Year 2016 Finalists Announced

Three Royal Welsh College Of Music & Drama students plus a student from Trinity College Of St David will contest the 2016 final of the Welsh Musical Theatre Young Singer Of The Year competition. Following a closely fought preliminary round of high quality performances of songs representing the entire gamut of the musical theatre catalogue held at Gowerton School on Saturday April 23, adjudicators Vivien Care, Clare Hammacott and Michael Morwood selected the four worthy finalists - Cardiff-based Dafydd Gape, Michael Robert-Lowe from Chepstow, Jonathan Radford from Port Talbot and Rhondda Valley girl Rachel Lee Stephens.

The competition, organized by the Dunvant Male Choir (Wales's longest continuously running male voice choir), has attracted a consistently high standard of contestants since its launch in 2003. Former winners include Olivier Award winner David Thaxton (Les Miserables, Passion, Love Never Dies), Connie Fisher (Wonderful Town, They're Playing My Song, The Sound Of Music), Hayley Gallivan (Wicked, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Spring Awakening), Michael Riseley (Les Miserables) and Kit Orton (West End star of Spamalot, who is currently touring the UK playing the role of Welsh pop icon Tom Jones in the musical "Tom").

The 2016 Final of the competition (sponsored by the Principality Building Society, Shirgar Butter Company, Loud Applause Productions and the Dunvant Rugby Club Singers) will be held at the Taliesin Arts Centre, Swansea on Sunday July 3. The four finalists will each perform a varied programme of musical theatre fare while competing for the prestigious title plus a cash prize of £1,000 - and the evening will also feature numbers sung by the Dunvant Male Choir as well a performance by 2015 Welsh Musical Theatre Young Singer Of the Year (and Britain's Got Talent semi-finalist) Jodi Bird.