BOURNEMOUTH opera singer Kate Royal has been awarded the coveted Kathleen Ferrier Award with its prize money of £10,000.

The former Talbot Heath pupil who studied music and drama at Brockenhurst College has also been offered two major roles with Glyndebourne Opera and her performance diary is booked up into mid 2007!

The 25-year-old, who cut her teeth as a performer with Bournemouth-based Big Little Theatre Company as a teenager and started her operatic training with Bournemouth's Jon Andrew, said winning the Kathleen Ferrier Award is already opening many doors for her.

And she is negotiating many exciting projects for the future.

Kate has just finished a year at the National Opera Studio following six years of training at the Guildhall School.

She said winning the award had been "incredible".

"I was one of 100 singers who were put through three rounds of performances over a week at the Wigmore Hall in London, the main leader concert hall in London. Just to perform there was amazing. In the final round I was one of just five singers who each had to perform half-hour arias from operas and German and French songs. When I heard I had won I was gobsmacked!"

Kate added:"It has all gone crazy for me. Last summer I was singing in the Chorus at the Glyndbourne Festival where I had just one line to sing in one of their shows but after that it all started to happen."

This year Kate is understudying the role of Pamina in The Magic Flute in the festival from now until August.

Her future opera engagements include Woglinde (Das Rheingold) under Sir Simon Rattle at the BBC Proms, the Countess (Le nozze di Figaro) for Glyndebourne Touring Opera, Iris (Semele) for Scottish Opera and both First Lady (Die Zauberfloete) and Helena (A Midsummer Night's Dream) for the Glyndebourne Festival.