A GLOBE trotting opera star gave a rare UK performance when he was in the North-East to visit his old school today. (Thursday, November 26)

Tenor Ian Storey is famous around the world for performing in six languages at the finest opera houses and many fans consider him to be the best in the prized lead role in Tristan und Isolde.

But when the 57-year-old returned to his home turf of County Durham it was him who was impressed by the talent on show when he happily shared the stage with youngsters from Ferryhill.

“It is fantastic, I’m an ordinary lad from Chilton who happens to do an extraordinary job which sees me travelling around the world for nine or ten months a year.

“I don’t get here often enough but coming to the North-East is always like coming home.

“I last performed in English three years ago with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and this is the first time I’ve performed in England for 19 years, it feels really strange and I’m delighted it is here,” he said.

Mr Storey visited the region for an awards evening at Ferryhill Business and Enterprise College (FBEC), where he was a pupil four decades ago.

He also held a music workshop with youngsters and answered their questions before choirs from the town’s five schools joined him for a concert, each performing their own song before collaborating with him for a rendition of the ancient Iona Boat Song.

Mr Storey said: “My voice is big and heavy and my work is with Wagner, Verdi and Puccini which you cannot easily get kids involved in, but then I thought about Iona Boat Song.

“It was a true collaboration, not about them providing backing vocals for me.

“They were wonderful and it has been great fun.”

FBEC pupil Morgan Clark, 12, said: “It has been an honour to work with a professional, he’s given us some tips.”

Before heading north from his home in Herefordshire, Mr Storey asked Glenys Newby of Approach Too, who organised the day, to arrange a reunion with inspirational music teacher George Hetherington.

Mr Storey said: “He wasn’t my only music teacher but he ran the school choir I was in and was memorable, he is a phenomenal musician.

“I played piano from five but what I aspired to do was nothing compared to how he could play without even thinking.”

Mr Hetherington, 84, of Neville’s Cross, said: “I have followed his career so it is lovely to catch up with him.

“It is brilliant how well he has done, not everyone from a mining village becomes a world famous opera singer.”