CLASSICAL singer Lara Rebekah Harvey is set to perform in her home village next Saturday, September 3, after a touch-and-go operation saved her career.

Lara, 18, winner of a Young Vocalist of the Year Award and featured in the Herts Advertiser when she appeared in Country Life’s Girls in Pearls picture spread, got the go ahead for the solo concert in Ayot St Lawrence near Wheathampstead after being given the all-clear by a top London surgeon.

He told Lara she had been “one lucky girl” after a routine check at the dentist revealed she had impacted wisdom teeth that needed to come out but their position threatened permanent damage to her facial nerves.

The situation was found to be even more perilous than had shown up on the x-rays when the operation was underway.

Lara, who joins the Royal Northern College of Music as a mezzo-soprano next month, said: “If the surgeon hadn’t been so amazing I could have had a permanently numb face. I am so relieved. I was in tears with worry. Now I can just concentrate on my singing and my concert.”

As a rising star of the music world, Lara is singing in three proms at London’s Albert Hall this season.

She has spent the last year as a choral scholar in the Choir of Kings College London and as a member of the London Philharmonic Choir.

She also sings with the National Youth Choir and has performed live on Radio Three.

In addition Lara, who also won Most Promising Young Singer at the Hatfield Festival this year, performed a solo recital at Hatfield House for Lord and Lady Salisbury as part of the 400th anniversary celebration in May.

The concert is being held at 7.30pm at the Palladian Church in Ayot St Lawrence and Lara will be performing classical pieces, arias and art songs and some Broadway hits.

Advance tickets are �8 with concessions �6 from larasings@hotmail.com or 07721 457635 or �10 on the door.