FORMER Hereford musician Eleanor Briggs (above) was runner-up in this year's Chandos Symphony Young Musician competition held in Malvern.

Eleanor, aged 20, is a third year scholar at the Royal College of Music, where she studies the oboe.

She holds the position of 2nd oboe in the Young Musicians' Symphony Orchestra and has attended the Norwegian State Academy of Music for the past four months, where she has studied with Erik Niord Larsen.

Her solo dates for 2005 include recitals at The Grosvenor Chapel at Hyde Park, Gloucester Cathedral, and the musician's church, St Sepulchre-without-Newgate.