Ella takesmajor title

LANCING College student Ella Taylor, aged 16, is the girl winner in the BBC  Radio 2 Young Chorister of the Year competition 2010.

A boarder and a choral scholar, Ella chose Lancing for her sixth form studies because of its choral tradition and music department. She is a dedicated member of the Lancing College Chapel Choir, which sings in weekly chapel services, and makes tours to major churches and cathedrals in the UK and abroad.

BBC Radio 2 Young Chorister Of The Year celebrates young talents singing for worship in churches, chapels, cathedrals and beyond. This year, the finalists performed to a huge audience in St Paul’s Cathedral. The judges included John Rutter; singer and songwriter Nell Bryden; Lindsay Gray, director of the Royal School of Church Music; and singer and actor Sharon D Clarke.

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Ella Taylor sang the hymn I Cannot Tell Why He Whom Angels worship, to the Londonderry Air, and the aria How Beautiful Are The Feet from Handel’s Messiah.

Ella has received a trophy and will appear on BBC Radio 2’s Good Morning Sunday, Sunday Half Hour Christmas Special and Friday Night is Music Night; also on BBC Radio 4’s Daily Service and Sunday Worship, as well as special events at Christmas and Easter, including a Royal Albert Hall Christmas Concert.

Ella said: “I’m speechless, I can’t believe it!”

Previous winners have won recording contracts, appeared in West End musicals and sung with prestigious choirs.

Ella is a former chorister of Sheffield Cathedral, where her father Neil is the director of music. Ella also plays the violin in the school symphony orchestra. Her ambition is to become a professional singer, perhaps after studying for a music degree at university.

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