Two Wembley siblings have sung their way to winning a gold award at music festival hosted by the UK and China.
Prerna Thakkar, 14, and her 12-year-old brother Veer Thakkar shone at China-UK International Music Festival on Sunday winning the top prize.
Prerna won two awards, Gold in the solo category and also in the duet category with her brother singing Western classical songs.
She said: "I'm really happy to have won this competition. There were loads of different categories with 10 children in each, it was a really high standard.
"It was definitely a new experience, it was quite nerve wracking inititially but once I got into it and saw the judges were just viewing me for my perfomance I felt much more relaxed."
Veer, who won an excellence award for his solo, said: "I didn't know what to expect. I walked in, saw a panel of judges staring eagerly, like pigeons when they are eyeing their catch.
"I thought 'have I become the catch or the prey'?
"They didn't mean anything bad, I didn't get hunted down at the end of the day. They were very gentle."
The pair started music lessons at the age of around six years old, and are currently achieving high grades in Indian classical singing, the piano and other instruments.
Prerna started learning Western classical singing three years ago which she said was "challenging". "I really enjoy challenges, I find I learn alot.
"There are so many emotions music can portray and if you're performing in a concert you might have to portray one emotion one minute but then something completely contrasting the next and being able to switch between the two really quickly."
She added: "Music is something that I really want to do going forward, but I do know how hard it is to get into the industry so with that in mind I'm keeping my options open."
Veer said he enjoyed the concert the day after the competition where he met "high up people" in the music industry and "got to hear how diverse world-wide music is" that was performed by Chinese musicians who had come over on an exchange programme.
"I enjoy music, I don't know in the future if I'll take it up as a profession, occupation or I might keep it as a hobby or a pasttime. I'm not sure. I'm into sciences, I'm into physics."
The international event was founded in 2018, and is co-hosted by the China-UK International Music Festival Organizing Committee, the music department of Queen Mary University of London, the London Confucius Institute at SOAS, and the Chinese Classical Instruments Studio.
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