The winner of this year’s Hereford Police Male Choir’s Young Musicians’ Bursary worth £1,000 is Emily Rooke, a 20 year old soprano who was described by the adjudicators as ‘an outstanding’ candidate.

Emily from Pudleston near Leominster, a former student at Hereford Sixth Form College, is studying at the Royal College of Music and Drama in Cardiff and plans to use the bursary to pay for extra coaching, to attend a schools music event in Scotland and to meet audition costs. She will be the guest soloist at the choir’s Diamond Jubilee concert in Hereford Shirehall on June 17

The bursary, sponsored by the Becket Bulmer Fund (managed by Herefordshire Community Foundation) was established 10 years ago to mark the choir’s Golden Jubilee.

The six other finalists were: Natasja Enthoven, piano; Emily Evans, piano/soprano; Simon Pratt, voice/bass; Hope Pugh, mezzo soprano; Eduards Toms Ceplenicks, voice/bass; Megan Jones, flute/soprano.