STRIKE up the band! City musicians gave a brassy welcome to a special guest at Oxford railway station yesterday.

Members of the city branch of the Welsh National Opera Friends honoured the national group’s chairman as part of a national challenge.

Ian Cartwright was touring each active branch of the friends by rail, also taking in Llandudno, Liverpool, Birmingham, Southampton, Bristol, Cardiff and Swansea.

Pupils of St Edward’s School, Woodstock Road helped herald the guest and he departed again to the sound of Verdi’s Grand March, from the opera Aida.

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David Davies, of the WNO Oxford Friends, said: “It was great to hear the trumpets and to meet Ian again.”

The visit came as the group prepares to perform a trio of famous operas in Oxford’s New Theatre.

They will perform Bizet’s Carmen on Wednesday and Thursday, followed by Rossini’s operas Moses in Egypt and William Tell on Friday and Saturday respectively.

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