A SOUTH Lakeland teenager has won a place in the prestigious National Youth Girls’ Choir.

Eden Rose Hunter, 15, whose ambition is to star in West End musicals, said she was “shocked and thrilled” to have been accepted.

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“I auditioned towards the end of last year and sang two songs, one acapella, before the judges,” said Eden Rose, who lives near Kirkby Lonsdale. “I thought I had done OK but when the news came through I was still stunned.”

A former pupil of Tracie Penwarden Singing Studios in Milnthorpe, Eden Rose has won prizes at the Ulverston Music Festival and the Mary Wakefield Festival. Ms Penwarden said: “It is no surprise to me that she has been accepted for the National Girls Youth Choir. I am sure it is a stepping stone to even greater things.”

Eden Rose is now a pupil at Abbots Bromley boarding school, Staffordshire, where she is studying musical theatre alongside her GCSEs.

Proud mum Joanne Hunter, who owns the Grasmere Gingerbread Shop, said: “She was singing around the house when she was a little girl and she’s been singing ever since.”

Last year Eden Rose, who lives near Kirkby Lonsdale, starred in a video recording of Somewhere Only We Know about the closure of the A591 route through the Lake District. It was a YouTube sensation with thousands of hits.

Eden Rose is also studying for exams through the world-renowned London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA), and is an associate member of the Merseyside Dance and Drama Centre.

“My ultimate ambition is to sing on the West End stage. To play Molly in Ghost The Musical would be my dream,” said Eden Rose.

Julia Forbes, spokesman for the National Girls’ Youth Choir, said: “Eden Rose is a singing superhero."