Wakefield chorister makes finals of national contest for second year

Charlie Trueman will appear on TV as part of the BBC Young Chorister of the Year 2020 contest, which will be filmed later this year.

He is one of just 10 young choristers from across the country who has progressed to the final stages of the competition.

Two semi-finals will be broadcast on television in late November, before the top three male and female choristers progress to the grand finale, which will air on BBC 1 and Radion 2 in December.

It is the second year in a row that Charlie has earned a place in the semi finals of the contest, and follows an emotional year which saw mum Claire spend almost a month in hospital after contracting Covid-19.

Charlie, from South Elmsall, made his TV debut earlier this year after being invited to take part in the Rodolfus Foundation's Virtual Evensong Project.

As part of the contest, Charlie will also meet Aled Jones and Katherine Jenkins, who will offer one-to-one tutorials to each of the choristers.

The Dean of Wakefield, the Very Revd Simon Cowling, welcomed the news and said this was a real boost to the Cathedral community at this time.

He said: Charlie’s news has come at the best possible time as Wakefield Cathedral and the city we serve continue to emerge from the difficult days of lockdown.

"We’re really proud that Charlie will be flying the flag for our wonderful cathedral choir in this year’s competition.

"His success gives all our singers an incentive to work hard to ensure that they’ll be raring to go when singing is finally allowed once more in our cathedral. "