THE BLUE Riband award at this year's 76th Arbroath and District Musical Festival was won on Saturday by local singer, 21-year-old Caroline Ather.
TO VIEW A SLIDESHOW OF PICTURES CLICK HERECaroline, who has been competing in the festival since the age of nine, won six classes, including the Gold Medal for Vocal, and gained a high mark of 90 for her rendition of Hanacker Mill (Warlock, Belloc).
She is a pupil of Arbroath music teacher Sheena Glover, and attended Ladyloan Primary and Arbroath High Schools.
At present, she is completing an English degree at the University of Dundee, and hopes to take a Masters Course next session.
In her spare time she is very much a working student, with two part-time jobs, at Dobbies at Monifieth, and Peppo's Chip Shop in Arbroath.
She is about to go on stage in the Angus Musical Youth Theatre production, 'We Will Rock You', and already has theatrical experience as a member of the cast of Arbroath Musical Society's 'Les Miserables'.
She loves singing, and is following in the footsteps of her mother, Gillian Webster, who won the Blue Riband twice - in 1993 and 1996.
The venue for the final session was the Old & Abbey Church hall, where the instrumental gold award was presented to former Blue Riband winner, Rob Johnston.
The adjudicators' award for achievement, in memory of a stalwart of the festival, the late Miss Edna Dunbar, was won by John Kerr.
The 2008 Tomala Piano Scholarship was won jointly by Eliot Benvie, Brechin; and Victoria Edwards, Monifieth.
The Morrison Trophy for best junior performer was won by Ailsa Russell, and the Elizabeth Gordon Singers Vocal Scholarship went to Claire Nicol, Arbroath.
All the results are in this week's edition of the Arbroath Herald or the Guide & Gazette.See a slideshow of pictures from the earlier part of the festival by clicking here
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