A teenager from Westwood, near Bradford on Avon, has been selected to join the National Youth Orchestra following months of highly-competitive auditions.

Seren Nickson, 14, will be joining 163 other teenagers from all over the country and will be one of the youngest string players in the 2015 orchestra.

She said: “I have been playing the violin for six years. I was introduced to it through an introductory scheme run by Westwood with Iford Primary School, when I was eight, and it was then that I discovered how much I enjoyed playing music and performing for people.”

“I see myself as extremely lucky to have this opportunity and I intend on absorbing every bit of that experience and giving everything I’ve got to this year’s courses and performances. Perhaps, by doing so, I will be able to inspire a few young musicians myself.”

Seren, who attends Hayesfield Girls’ School in Bath, practises on average two to three hours a day and said playing the violin also acted as an escape from any stress she experiences.

She said: “I feel free when I play and I feel like I can do anything with it. It calms me down when I practise and makes me more cheerful.”

Professor Robert Turrell has been Seren’s violin tutor since 2009 and during that time she has played for the National Children’s Orch-estra, as well as holding a place at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London.

In terms of balancing her school work with practising, Seren thinks she has found the right balance.

She said: “I have to get up early in the morning to practise an hour before school and then I do an hour when I come home and one maybe later in the evening. Amongst that, I fit in my revision.”

The first show Seren will play with the National Youth Orchestra will be at Leeds Town Hall on January 3, with another the following day at the Barbican in London.