Thirteen-year-old Richard Decker from Sidcup won the coveted BBC Radio 2 Chorister of the Year award and has been busy with recording dates in Manchester and Leeds since then.
He appeared on BBC1’s The One Show on December 23. The St Olave’s School pupil sang at the Queen’s Chapel of the Savoy on Christmas morning after a concert with the All Saints Choir of Belvedere on Christmas Eve. He also sang with the Erith Operatic Society at a Christmas concert.
Viewers will be able to see him on the channel’s Songs of Praise from the medieval village of Coggeshall in Essex on Sunday January 22.
He started his singing career with the school choir, and is due to make his debut accompanying them on the organ. Keen musician Richard also plays the piano and oboe and is considering music as a career. He practices with his school choir at Goddington Lane, Orpington, three times a week, with rehearsals fitted in before and after school.
Richard won the BBC competition after competing against three other boys at St Martin’s in the Fields in Trafalgar Square in November.
He was selected as the boys’ winner by judges including John Rutter, composer and music director of the Cambridge Singers Laura Wright, singer and former Radio 2 Young Chorister and Steve Abbott, record producer and music manager.