These two students hit the right notes with a selection of classical numbers and pop hits at the Fold in Billericay.

Marianne Quintrell, 17, of Jackson Lane, Billericay, and Natalie Thurlow, 18, of Butlers Grove, Laindon, played the two-hour recital as part of their music A-levels.

After months of rehearsals the Billericay School students were a bit nervous about hitting the stage.

However, they turned in a dazzling performance.

Marianne studies at the Guildhall School of Music in London on Saturdays while Natalie is a finalist in the this year's Southend Young Musician of the Year competition.

Both hope to go on to university in their quests to make it to the top.

Marianne, whose big number was Bach's Sonata number six, said: "I was very nervous, I was not thinking straight at all but it went really well in the end."

Hitting the right note - Marianne Quintrell, 17, and Natalie Thurlow, 18

Picture: ROBIN WOOSEY

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.