A SCHOOL choir flew to the Big Apple to spread their music across the Atlantic.

The 43 Westholme girls aged between 12 and 18 travelled with seven staff members to sing, see and shop their way through New York.

On the second day into their four-day trip the choir performed at the William's Residence senior citizens centre run by the Salvation Army and the concert was watched by a crowd of up to 100.

The choir tours every summer, with previous visits to Rome, Seville and Geneva.

Musical director at the school Eric Millest, explained his reasons for choosing New York as this year's tour destination.

Mr Millest said: "We have visited a number of European dest-inations on our annual choir tours over the last 10 years and thought it was time to travel a bit further. New York seemed to be one of the most exciting places we could choose."

He added: "Even though they have pro-fessional performers at the William's Residence, including concerts by the New York Metro-politan Opera, they gave us a rapturous rec-eption."

Headmistress Lillian Croston travelled out to support the girls in their US debut per-formance.

Songs performed included hits of Frank Sinatra, a medley from West Side Story and the Armed man, a mass for peace composed by Karl Jenkins made famous after the attack on the twin towers in 2001.

After the great success of the concert, the group took full advantage of their time in New York by visiting attractions such as the Empire State Building, the United Nations, Ground Zero and Times Square.

They even found time to fit in a trip to an American Diner.

Plans are being made for the school's next trip to Cannes and Monte Carlo next year.