A FORMER Tavistock student juggled fire, performed magic tricks and sang to win gold and be crowned a national champion with her group in the recent British barbershop quartet championships.

Sophie Wilson, 27 and originally from Tavistock, is a member of the vocal quartet Avalon, which, after a series of gruelling preliminary rounds, sailed through to the finals of the Ladies’ Association of British Barbershop Singers’ 2018 Quartet Championships and came out on top to become the top ladies quartet in the country.

All the members of the quartet are graduates of Bristol University, where they first developed their interest in a cappella singing. Sophie was a music scholar at Kelly College and studied music at Bristol and Exeter universities. She now works as a school teacher at a preparatory school in Dulwich.

Following the group’s win, Sophie said: ‘I was both nervous and excited to compete at the Ladies’ Association of British Barbershop Singers convention this year. The event is attended by around 2,000 people.

‘Last year my quartet, Avalon, came third, winning bronze medals, but we knew that the standard was really high this year and that there was tough competition, so our only aim was to improve on last year’s score of 74.4 percent.

‘We were really happy with our performance in the semi-finals and were delighted when it was announced that we would be one of eight quartets, out of the 29 competing, to sing in the finals!’

Sophie said that the group’s final set was ‘particularly nerve-wracking’ as they had worked several magic tricks into their performance.

‘Not only were we thinking about our singing but we also had to co-ordinate disappearing and reappearing silks and even produce fire!’ she said. ‘When it was announced that we had come first, becoming national champions, we really could not believe it. We also achieved our goal of improving on last year’s score and this year achieved 75.9 percent.

‘We still haven’t quite got used to the idea that we won first prize but we are looking forward to our next rehearsal where we will certainly all be wearing our gold medals!’