The career of a talented tenor from Llandudno has been given a major boost after his performance at an international festival.

Elgan Llyr Thomas is £2,000 better off after reaching the final of the International Voice of the Future competition at the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod.

He and soprano Catrin Woodruff lost out to another soprano, Sian Dicker, 26, from Trowbridge in Wiltshire, who received the Pendine Trophy and a cheque for £6,000.

Elgan was presented with the cheque by Mario Kreft MBE, proprietor of the arts loving sponsor of the competition, the Pendine Park care organisation.

No fewer than 18 hopefuls from around the globe took part in a preliminary competition.

The competition attracted a host of the world's best young singers after Pendine Park contributed £5,000 to the prize with £3,000 coming from Sir Bryn Terfel’s Foundation and £2,000 from the Eisteddfod.

After watching the three stunning performances with his wife, Gill, Mario Kreft said: “The standard of performance we have witnessed was absolutely breathtaking. This is the first year of a whole new format for this competition.

“Our vision is to showcase and nurture young talent and the increased prize fund is designed to help advance their careers.

Elgan said: “I‘m pretty busy at the moment and in fact have performances lined up from now until 2020 which has to be good. I’m working with English Opera and have performances in Paris coming up soon which is amazing.

“And I really enjoyed playing the role of Spoletta alongside Sir Bryn Terfel in Tosca here at Llangollen this week.”

Elgan graduated from the Royal Northern College of Music and completed his studies at London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

He said: “I’m still based in Llandudno but I’m all over the place travelling, it comes with the job I suppose.”