TEENAGE pianist Catherine Benson has become a double award-winner.

Catherine, 16, of Lindley, has received two awards from the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music.

This is the board which sets graded exams for music pupils.

The board has given Catherine the Elsie Roberts Prize for gaining the highest mark in Huddersfield for Grade 6, 7 and 8 exams taken during 2005.

She has also been awarded the Bessie Brearley Prize for getting the highest mark in Huddersfield for Grade 8 exams taken in 2005.

Catherine took her Grade 6 and 7 exams earlier last year and passed her Grade 8 in December.

She has been playing the piano since the age of seven and is taught by Jessie Jameson.

Catherine, a pupil at North Halifax Grammar School, is also about to take her Grade 8 violin exam.

She is a singer with the Halifax Young Singers and the Yorkshire Youth Choir.