Norfolk Young Musician Competition 2012 winner Annabella Ellis ( red dress ) with runners up Rose Herbert and Joongha Park ( at piano ) with winner of The Aylsham Music Soceity Prize winner Finlay McEwen. Photo: Steve Adams

A talented Norfolk singer is holding a special concert to help fund her dream of pursuing an opera career.

Annabella Ellis, a 22-year-old former Notre Dame High School student from Eaton, is in her final year at London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and has a place to study a master of arts in voice at the prestigious Royal Academy of Music.

Fees for her two-year course will cost about £20,000, and to help raise some funds she is performing in a concert called A Night to Remember, at the Assembly House in Norwich in April.

Miss Ellis, a soprano who won the 2012 Norfolk Young Musician Competition, also trained in acting while growing up, and she said she was first inspired to follow a music career when at the age of 14 she sang, Something Wonderful, from the show the King and I, on the Norwich Theatre Royal’s stage.

“From then my passion has really grown, because with text and music put together it can bring out different emotions and reactions that you cannot get from singling out one of the two.

“There is a special depth of emotion,” said Miss Ellis.

Members of the Norfolk and Norwich Operatic Society will also perform in the concert along with Miss Ellis’ fellow Guildhall students – Mezzo-soprano Clare Ghigo, from Malta, and pianist Kristina Rokashevich, from Estonia.

There will be a mixture of arias and duets from operas as well as some light music.

A Night to Remember is at the Assembly House on April 19 at 7.30pm. Tickets £8. To book call 01603 630000. Visit www.annabellaellis.com