A talented young cornet player with Porthleven Town Band would be justified in blowing her own trumpet this week after being offered a coveted place in the National Children's Brass Band of Great Britain.

Nine-year-old Georgina Evans, from Camborne, will be attending the national band's inaugural course in July after successfully coming through a gruelling audition process.

Once the final audition has been completed, hundreds of hopefuls from around the country will have been whittled down to a maximum of 40 young people aged between eight and 12 years old, of which only 14 will be cornet players.

Georgina, who started learning the cornet at the age of four, won her first solo prize in a contest in New Zealand, where her family lived before returning to Cornwall.

The adjudicator of that contest was Howard Taylor, one-time musical director of Bodmin Town Band, who predicted it would be the first of many prizes Georgina would claim. That prediction has since come true, with the talented youngster winning more than 50 trophies in local music festivals and band contests.

Tutored by her father, Francis Evans, Georgina has passed grades one to four on cornet, all with distinction. She also has piano lessons with Valerie Pryor, of Camborne, and has passed her grade one piano exam with merit.

She plays cornet with Porthleven Town Band and training band - attending rehearsals three times a week and enjoying a great social life alongside her father (who conducts the band), her mother Paula and sisters Emily, seven, and Hannah, five, who also play in the band.

The national children's brass band was formed by Dr Nicholas Childs, musical director of the world famous Black Dyke Mills Band, to showcase the talents of players who were too young to take part in the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain.

The children's band course this summer overlaps the youth band course by one day, allowing the younger players a taste of how the youth band, which caters for children aged from 13 to 18-years-old, operates.