CIRENCESTER schoolgirl Lizzie Lester, 14, will be playing recorder and flute in the Lunchtime Live concert in Cirencester Parish Church on Monday, April 26 at 1pm.

She will be joined by her father, Richard, on the piano and Robina Sabourin on the cello.

Lizzie began studying recorder at the age of six, progressing rapidly to Grade VIII by the age of nine. A year later she was the youngest musician ever to pass the Guildhall School of Music and Drama performance diploma with honours.

She has performed as a soloist on many occasions with a professional orchestra in the Cirencester Early Music Festival, in virtuoso concertos by Sammartini and Vivaldi, to critical acclaim and she has also played professionally in notable period instrument orchestras under Anthony Halstead and Warwick Cole.

A pupil at Kingshill School, Cirencester, Lizzie studies recorder with Christopher Ball in London, flute with Teresa McIver and piano with her father. She recently won first prize in the woodwind section of the national Rotary Club of Great Britain Young Musician of the Year and was a close runner up in the overall final. Woodwind Lizzie has also been awarded a substantial grant from the Cirencester-based Powell's Educational Trust, which will enable her to purchase a low pitch recorder on which to perform baroque music.