Mount St Mary's pupil's royal appointment

James Castle

The Diamond Jubilee celebrations gave a talented Derbyshire youngster a once-in-a lifetime experience - to perform for the Queen in Westminster Hall.

James Castle, 13, who is a pupil at Mount St Mary's College in Derbyshire, 13, who is a pupil at Mount St Mary's College in Derbyshire, is part of the National Children's Orchestra (NCO) and helped to make up its 114-strong ensemble that entertained the Royal Family at a special lunch.

The Year 8 pupil played the cello at the event on Tuesday, June 5 and the orchestra of talented children aged up to 14 from across the country was warmly greeted by the Royal Party before their two-hour spectacular.

Lucy Kitchener, director of music at Mount St Mary's, said: "James is a very talented musician and we are delighted that he was able to play cello at this historic event. He represented the Mount extremely well."

James, from Eckington, started playing cello at the age of six. He is also a talented pianist and has recently started learning the clarinet at the Jesuit college.

James said he was nervous beforehand but really enjoyed the event with the Royal Family. He added: "We performed for over two hours for the Queen and her guests and she seemed to enjoy our performance of the traditional Roast Beef of Old England when she entered Westminster Hall and walked past us.

"There were 700 guests and at the end of our performance we were given a standing ovation, which was really nice."

The orchestra was also told that the Queen was 'wowed' and The Duchess of Cambridge was 'doubly wowed' by their musical spectacular. James' two brothers are also musically gifted and all three boys are music scholars with the Mount's music department.

Fifteen year-old Harry Castle is in Year 10 and has passed grade eight with distinction on both violin and piano. He is a member of the National Youth Orchestra and will be performing at the BBC Proms this summer. He was also recently awarded the most promising instrumentalist prize for the second year running at the Worksop Festival.

Youngest brother, 11 year-old Sam Castle, is a member of the under 12 National Children's Orchestra, and has recently been accepted as a junior member of the Royal Northern College of Music, where Harry also attends. Sam has also recently started learning the trombone at Mount St Mary's.

All three boys have won a number of awards in local and national competitions.