Talented soprano Annie-Rose Cowdry can continue to shine thanks to a £230 grant from the Calne Music and Arts Festival.

Miss Cowdry, 18, is a student at John Bentley’s sixth form in Calne and starred in the school’s Christmas production of Joan Littlewood’s Oh What a Lovely War. The cash will pay for 33 peripatetic music lessons for one academic year to aid her ambition to study music therapy at the University of Wales in Newport.

The Calne Music and Arts Festival, a registered charity that aims to inspire local artists, celebrates its 40th anniversary in October.

John Bentley music teacher Peter Grant said: “It will be an annual bursary so we would hope that another student will benefit for the next academic year.”

Visit www.calnemusican dartsfestival.co.uk/2014