BRASS playing teenager Michael Davis has scaled new heights of success by winning a coveted place in the National Youth Brass Band.

Michael, 14, from Little Marton, has been picked to join the band and play at two special concerts in April.

He has been playing the trumpet and the cornet since he was eight years old.

A pupil at Montgomery High School, Bispham, Michael, pictured here practising, already plays lead trumpet in the Lancashire Students Jazz Orchestra but was called up for the national brass band auditions late last year. "The auditions took place at Salford University," said Michael, "and I was really nervous. I had to play a musical study, a piece set for the audition, my musical scales and I also had to sight read a short piece.

"I didn't really think I had got through the audition, but soon after I received a letter saying I had reached the standard required to join the band, but there were no vacancies for a cornet or trumpet player.

"Last Sunday, though, my mum came to me with a letter inviting me to the brass band courses being held in April. I was really surprised, but it has sunk in now. After the course, the band is performing for two nights. One performance is taking place at Durham Cathedral and the other at Sheffield Civic Hall."

Michael is from a particularly musical family, with both his grandad and great grandad playing in brass bands, while his mum, Beverley, used to play the church organ.

Mum was particularly proud of her son and his brother, Brett, who has just got a distinction in his grade one clarinet exam.

Michael also recently completed his grade eight exam with distinction on the cornet.

"I am so proud of both of them," she said. "You can only ask your children to do their best and to get two distinctions and this invitation -- well, it's fantastic!"

Michael now aims to join the Marines as a bandsman.