The chamber choir from Truro Prep School are celebrating their success after winning third place at an international music festival in Wales.

The Llangollen International Music Eisteddfod was attended by 45 pupils from the school, from year three to six, who travelled to north-east Wales to represent Cornwall.

Dressed in traditional Cornish tartan, the pupils took to the main stage in the Junior Children’s Choir competition, and performed two pieces; Icarus by Paul Jarman and Marvellous Song by Tom Egglestone.

With over 50,000 people attending the festival over the six-day event, including choirs and performers from across the world, this was the biggest performance of the year from the choir.

Sarah Patterson, head of Truro Prep, said: “Born and bred in Cardiff, I was fully aware of the importance of Llangollen.

“I never dreamed that I would attend as singing isn’t my strong point but to go with the choir this week has been beyond amazing.

“They sang and performed with such passion and energy; people were approaching us from all over the Eisteddfod village to say how much they enjoyed their pieces.”

This year was the first time that pupils in year three have attended the festival, with head of music at Truro Prep, Angela Renshaw, describing the choir’s performance as ‘incredible’.

She said: “We were thrilled to participate in this iconic festival representing our school, our local community and our county.

“The choir have worked extremely hard over the past months and grown together as a wonderful musical group of young people.

“We are absolutely thrilled with our result and we’ve shared such a wonderful time that will live on in our memories for a very long time.”

Angela, who conducted the Chamber Choir on stage at the festival, was also delighted to be awarded the overall award for Best Conductor in the children’s choir categories.

The award is given to recognise the most inspiring conductor during Eisteddfod, and with previous winners of this award being from Wales and Indonesia, Angela is the first Cornish conductor to have won this at Llangollen and will be presented with the award on July 18 at Truro Prep School.

Upon hearing the news, Angela said: “I’m absolutely ecstatic, it’s just incredible.

“The children put on a fabulous performance on Wednesday and for them to win their place, I thought that was the end of our journey but then to find this out as well, I’m just delighted.”

Truro Prep Chamber Choir have gone from strength to strength over the years, with 37 students attending the Llangollen Eisteddfod last year, and in 2015 they were awarded best performance at the National Youth Music Festival in Birmingham.

With their most recent international award from Llangollen to add to their collection, we look forward to seeing what their next adventure brings.