A TEENAGE soprano has hit yet another high note on the road to choral fame, by singing before the Queen in the Millennium Dome on New Year's Eve!

For 16-year-old Rebecca Hughes of Eccleston, was Merseyside's only representative in the 20-strong Millennium Youth Choir which was formed at the request of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Popularly known as Becky, she is a pupil at Rainford High School and has been a chorister at St Thomas's Church, Westfield Street, since the age of six, while mum Janet also sings in the choir and dad Keith is a licensed reader

Becky's date at London's much-publicised Dome follows in the wake of membership of the Northern Cathedral Singers, plus winning the Bishop's Chorister accolade in 1995 and the St Cecilia Award in 1998.

To earn her place at the prestigious event Miss Hughes first applied to the Royal School of Church Music, before being placed on a short-list of 90 auditioned at Manchester Cathedral, 40 of whom were chosen as founder-members of the Millennium Youth Choir.

Naturally delighted by her once-in-a-lifetime experience, blue-eyed blonde Becky said: "Being at the Dome was simply spectacular, with the only disappointment being that mum and dad couldn't get tickets even though they accompanied me to London."

Next big date for Becky and the MYC is at Guildford during Holy Week, and no doubt proud parents Keith and Janet Hughes will be there in support of their dulcet-toned daughter.

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