MOVE aside Pavarotti and Lesley Garrett, a former Worcester schoolgirl is hoping to be the new opera star on the block after winning a coveted place on one of the top music courses in the country.

Lisa Wilson, aged 28, beat competition from nearly 150 applicants world wide to win one of two places at The Guildhall School of Music in London, following two tough auditions.

The talented singer, who studied at Alice Ottley girls' school in Worcester's Tything, is now preparing to work alongside some of the world's most renowned conductors on the two-year course, which starts in September.

She will also get acting classes, private study tutorials, staged combat sessions and in her final year will take part in three public operas.

She said: "I still can't quite believe it as this is the top of the top for opera singing and it's something I've wanted to do since I was 17. The odds of getting on the course were quite ridiculous so I'm over the moon.

"When I was little I did a lot of singing and ballet and opera sort of combined the two. I just fell in love with it, and to be able to do the music, acting and stagework is a bit like the highest art form for me."

Lisa, who lives in Streatham, London, and is being taught opera singing by Professor Susan McCulloch, began singing at the age of 16.

After leaving Alice Ottley she studied English at Cambridge University, where she was also given a choral scholarship, singing for up to 18 hours a week.

She has been teaching singing for the past eight years and is working at schools in Oxford, Kent and two in the capital in a bid to save cash for her studies.

She also performs with the BBC Singers and The Sixteen - an internationally-renowned early music specialist group - and has applied to various charities for funding for her studies.

Once she has finished the course, she is hoping to work with the English National Opera or Royal Opera House.

Mother Gail, who lives in Worcester's Southall Avenue and is chairman of Worcester Dance Festival, said: "I feel very proud of her. She's worked so hard for this and I'm obviously delighted for her."