Duncan Carter, a boy soprano from a Catholic school in the north west, has gone up a range, winning the Bishop’s Award from the Royal School of Church Music.

Last year Duncan, 12, a chorister at St Ambrose College in Cheshire, won the Dean’s Award but this year he has performed with even greater distinction to be singled out by some of the country’s top choral experts as one of the nation’s finest young voices.

Duncan, from Raven Road, Timperley, practises twice a week and sings regularly both for his school’s newly reassembled choir and in St George’s church in Altrincham.