Dates for Your Diary

On 3 May at 7.30pm at St James's Church Piccadilly guitarist John Williams will give A Recital for Peace playing works by JS Bach, Scarlatti, Albeniz, Dodgson, Sculthorpe, Williams and music from Venezuela celebrating MANA's 25th anniversary year. Tickets cost £20 and £15. To book telephone 020 8455 1030.

Operetta is to be featured at the Finnish National Opera again, after a break of more than ten years. The eagerly awaited new production of The Merry Widow will be premiered on 3 May. www.ooppera.fi

Opera North's spring season features three new productions based on Shakespeare plays. Building on the success of Eight Little Greats, designer Johan Engels returns to design Verdi's Macbeth, from 2 May, Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream from 3 May and Gounod's Roméo et Juliette from 17 May as a three-in-one-set. For full information visit www.operanorth.co.uk

As part of the Zurich International Concert Series 2007/8 and following a successful appearance at the Proms last year, Ivor Bolton will bring his Salzburg Mozarteum to Cadogan Hall on 5 May in a programme which will showcase two of the orchestra's principal players in performances of Mozart's Flute Concerto No.1 and the Horn Concerto No.4.

The 2008/9 Season has also been announced opening on 17 October with the Moscow Philharmonic and pianist Freddy Kempf as soloist. On 17 November John Lill is the soloist with the Munich Klang Verwaltung Orchestra. Cadogan Hall Box Office 020 7730 4500 or book online at www.cadoganhall.com

Pierre Boulez, will visit Birmingham for a two-day programme of concerts and events entitled 'Boulez in Birmingham', which take place on 9 & 10 May in Birmingham's Town Hall, Birmingham Conservatoire (Adrian Boult Hall and Recital Hall) and the CBSO Centre. For further details including ticket and booking information, visit www.conservatoire.bcu.ac.uk.

To mark the 30th anniversary of the Competition, the Final of BBC Young Musician of the Year, produced by BBC Wales, is being transformed into a two day celebration of our outstanding young musicians.

On May 10, each of the five Finalists will play their chosen concerto with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Principal Conductor Thierry Fischer.

The competitors return to the stage on May 11. All five will reprise part of their concerto performance and perform a piece that is particularly personal to them. Wales Millennium Centre Box Office: 08700 40 2000

For information on Broadcast coverage visit the website at http://www.bbc.co.uk/youngmusician

Scottish Opera premieres a new production of Verdi's Falstaff on 13 May at Theatre Royal Glasgow. Director Dominic Hill, one of Scotland's leading theatre directors, makes his main stage debut for Scottish Opera, following his success with 2005's touring production of Macbeth. Peter Sidhom, who shone as Alberich in Scottish Opera's Ring Cycle, makes his debut in the title role. Other dates at the Theater Royal are 15,17,21 and 24 May. The opera tours then to His Majesty's Theatre, Aberdeen on 5, 7 June, Eden Court, Inverness on 12, 14 June and to the Edinburgh Festival Theatre on 18, 21, 26, 28 June. To book or find out more visit the websites: www.theatreroyalglasgow.com, www.hmtaberdeen.com www.eden-court.co.uk www.eft.co.uk

The English Chamber Orchestra, in May at the Cadogan Hall, have two concerts, the first on 14 May features both violin/conductor Augustin Dumay and soloist pianist Maria João Pires in a programme which includes Mozart's Fourth Violin Concerto and his Jeunehomme Concerto K271.

On 23 May conductor John Storgårds takes the baton when the orchestra joins with young pianist Benjamin Grosvenor and violinist Stephanie Gonley. For further information visit www.englishchamberorchestra.co.uk or to book phone the Cadogan Hall Box Office on 020 7730 4500.

The Cathcart Spring Prom is a musical highlight of each year; vibrant, innovative and avant-garde it reflects the youth and optimism of its founding roots when twenty six year old Henry Wood delivered Wagner's Rienzi Overture to open the first Prom and thirty five year old Cathcart bankrolled them. This year young Alex Stobbs, a remarkable musician, who suffers from Cystic fibrosis, has won the Cathcart Concerto Award. Having seen the documentary on his life I don't doubt that he has won this on merit. He will play Mozart's Piano Concerto No 21 with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra conducted by David Arnold. Other delights to savour on the night are the Royal Choral Society, Judith Howarth, tenor Wynne Evans, guitarist Richard Durrant, Pipe Major Jim Motherwell & the Eton College Pipers, the Welsh male voice choir Cantorion and the string quartet Eclipse Strings all presented by lovely Angela Rippon. Tickets cost from £18.50 to £46. Royal Albert Hall 0207 589 8212. www.royalalberthall.com

BBC Radio 3 is to broadcast every note written by the great Polish composer Frédéric Chopin in The Chopin Experience during the weekend of 17 and 18 May.

Inspired by South Wales's coal mining industry, award-winning composer Errollyn Wallen's brand new choral symphony for Welsh National Opera brings together opera, hymns, music theatre and a male voice choir; John Caird directs a cast of over 100 in a new production of Verdi's masterpiece Aida; Carlo Rizzi conducts a concert of rarely performed mini-masterpieces by Rossini, whilst Hansel & Gretel survive an adventure in Hell's Kitchen in Richard Jones's celebrated production of Humperdinck's classic. All these productions and concerts feature in Welsh National Opera's Summer Season at Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff, from 27 May to 14 June. www.wno.org.uk

Ravi Shankar embarks on his Farewell to Europe tour with two concerts at the Barbican on 29 May and 4 June.

Pianist Ashley Wass' future engagements include performances at the Orpheus & Bacchus Festival in May, and a series of concerts in Cyprus from 29 May - 5 June '08. Concerts in the UK include 14 June for the Finzi Trust in Ashmansworth, and a BBC lunchtime concert with Chloe Hanslip at Birmingham Town Hall on 11 June. For full details of any of these events, please visit: www.concert-diary.com

Hailed as one of the most inventive early music groups around, vocal group The Clerks will tour their imaginative new programme In Memoria in May and June this year, visiting unusual spaces around the country. Consisting of a mixture of Renaissance and Contemporary music, the group takes their music away from churches and into a series of impressive secular venues opening on 30 May at 7.15 pm in the National Coal Mining Museum, Wakefield, 31 May at Crossness Engines Pumping Station, London, 6 June in the Victoria Baths, Manchester and 7 June at Kempton Great Engines, Hanworth.

The Clerks can also be seen performing their City Cries programme at the Spitalfields and Ribchester Festivals in June '08. www.theclerks.co.uk

Classical music fans in London are in for a rare treat this June when the original manuscript of George Gershwin's finest work, Rhapsody No 2, is performed for the first time in the Capital - over 70 years after the original orchestration made its debut in 1931 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

This premiere London performance is just one of the highlights of The Lost Proms - two nights of rarely performed classical music taking place at Cadogan Hall on 3 and 4 June, in aid of UK learning disability charity Mencap. The Lost Proms will feature the New London Orchestra directed by Ronald Corp and celebrated soloists Catherine Bott and Jack Gibbons.

The Guildhall School Opera Department presents a double bill of Gioacchino Rossini's L'Occasione fa il Ladro and Charles Gounod's La Colombe directed by Alessandro Talevi, former Artistic Director of Independent Opera at Sadlers Wells on 12, 14, 16 & 18 June at 7pm, Guildhall School Theatre. More information: www.gsmd.ac.uk Tickets: £22.50 (£15 concessions) available from the Barbican Box Office 020 7638 8891 (www.barbican.org.uk) from 12 May.

Lisa Peacock Concert Management has once more provided a fine line up for the Spring 2008 Recitals with cellist Thomas Rann partnered by pianist Wu Qian on 2 June, pianist Daniel Propper on 8 June, pianist Kotaro Fukuma on 20 June and cellist Andreas partnering pianist Bengt Forsberg on 28 June all in recital at the Wigmore Hall. On 5 June at the Cadogan Hall the Kungsbacka Trio gives the world premiere of Christiane Boesch's Opus XVII for Piano Trio.

At the Wigmore Hall on 14 June at 7.30pm, British violinist Fenella Barton and American pianist Simone Dinnerstein unite for a concert. Their programme includes Bach's Sonata in C minor BWV 1017, Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata, A major Op. 47, the world première of Philip Lasser's Chaconne Variations for Violin and Piano and Schubert's Fantasie in C major D 934 - op post. 159. Tickets cost from £10 to £22 available at Wigmore Hall Box Office: 020 7935 2141 www.wigmore-hall.org.uk.

The final concert of this year's Sydenham International Music Festival on 15 June features the world premiere of the Symphony No 2 by Philip Sawyer, played by the London Mozart Players under Robert Trory. The programme includes Mozart's Piano Concerto in D minor K 466 with Valerie Tryon as soloist, and Beethoven's Seventh Symphony, at St Bartholomew's Church, Upper Sydenham, London. The American premiere of this work will take place later this year.

The Welsh Singers Competition which is arranged by Live Music Now! Wales in association with BBC Cymru Wales takes place 16 June in St David's Hall, Cardiff.

This years finalists are: Laura Parfitt - 32, soprano from Newport, studying at the Cardiff International Academy of Voice, John Pierce - tenor, 26, from St Asaph, studying at RNCM. Natalya Romaniw - soprano, 22, from Swansea, studying at Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Claire Watkins - soprano, 27, from Haverfordwest, graduate of Royal Academy of Opera.The BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conducted by Nicholas Braithwaite, will accompany the finalists.

Tickets are on sale at www.stdavidshallcardiff.co.uk Tel: 029 20 878 444.

Charities Philharmonia's summer concert in aid of the NSPCC will take place in St John's Smith Square on 21 June at 7.30pm with Mahler's First Symphony and Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, performed by soloist, leader of the London Symphony Orchestra and many other orchestras worldwide, Gordan Nikolitch. To get a glimpse of the orchestra in action or read some of the reviews of past concerts please visit the orchestra's website www.charitiesphilharmonia.org

A recent CD release by pianist Clara Rodriguez contains some of the most popular pieces of the Venezuelan repertoire. An opportunity to hear some of these arises on 27 June at 7.30pm when Clara Rodriguez plays a selection from the CD topping it off with Chopin's Ballade No. 4 in F minor Op. 52; Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor Op. 58. Tickets cost from £10 to £18.

The Goldberg Trio Lucerne is a union of three young, accomplished soloists: violist Annette Bartholdy, violinist Ina Dimitrova and violoncellist Mattia Zappa who have a flair for precise chamber musical play. You can hear the UK premiere of Bach's Goldberg Variations in the trio's own adaptation for string trio on 29 June at 7.30pm Wigmore Hall. Tickets cost from £10 to £20.

Clonter Opera Theatre is a 400 seat venue near Congleton in Cheshire with free parking, a bar, formal dining and indoor picnic facilities for everyone. Surrounded by lawns and bluebell woods, it is an idyllic setting. The audiences come from all over the North West, South Manchester, Cheshire and Staffordshire and further afield. Look out for Clonter Opera Theatre's new Carmen, which shows in London at the RCM's Britten Theatre on 8, and 9 October, you can also see it at their theatre during July on 17th, 19th, 22nd, 24th & 26th at 7pm. For more information or to book visit www.clonteropera.com

The Bavarian State Opera is celebrating the city of Munich's 850th anniversary. For this occasion, the Staatsoper will give a concert of Richard Strauss open to the public - and an additional gala performance at the Opera Festival with Karita Mattila and Thomas Hampson.

Recognizing the great musical history of the city of Munich, the concert of Richard Strauss' Four Last Songs and Thus Spake Zarathustra which had originally been planned to take place on 28 July in the National Theater, will now be part of the free "Opera for All" open-air concert series. Kent Nagano will be conducting with Anja Harteros as the soloist.

In the Theatre on that night Karita Mattila and Thomas Hampson will sing arias and duets.Tickets for this start at € 10 and can be ordered by contacting the Staatsoper at www.bayerische.staatsoper.de

The English Music Festival from 23 to 27 May, is an exciting project that celebrates Britain's rich musical heritage by showcasing the brilliance, innovation and beauty of English music.

Whilst ranging from the timeless delights of Tallis and Byrd to the power and drama of Howells and Britten, the focal point of Festival is the early twentieth century - the golden renaissance of English music. As well as commissioned thrilling but accessible new works in the English tradition, the EMF is devoted to keeping important works by major British composers in the repertoire, and to resurrecting the many forgotten gems by a host of lesser-known composers, whose exquisitely crafted works never fail to surprise and enchant.

The Festival is held in and around Dorchester-on-Thames, a picturesque village in the Oxfordshire countryside. Box Office: 01865 305 305. www.englishmusicfestival.org.uk or telephone 0203 274 1054.

In celebration of Michael Nyman's immense creative output over the past thirty years, a three-day festival of Nyman's work will be held from 6 to 8 June at London's prestigious concert venue, Cadogan Hall. The event will also show Nyman's gratitude to his most intimate musical collaborators: The Michael Nyman Band, the Nyman Quartet, the contralto Hilary Summers and soprano Marie Angel, along with violinist Francesco D'Orazio and Wingates Brass Band. www.michaelnyman.com / www.mnrecords.com

From 14 to 27 June and continuing on a course of expansion and development that in recent years has seen the previously modest 'Chelsea village' festival punching well above its weight, the 2008 Chelsea Festival ensures that it will catch the eye not only in London but also further afield. www.chelseafestival.org.uk

Cumbria Choral Initiative is a group of people who are committed to developing the rich heritage of one of England's and Cumbria's finest traditions: Choral Singing. With this in mind they have created a Vaughan Williams Festival to run from 11 to 13 July to celebrate the life of Ralph Vaughan Williams, who died in 1958. More information is available at www.cumbriachoralinitiative.org.uk To book tickets, either call the Kendal Brewery Arts Centre box office on 01539 725133 or book online at www.breweryarts.co.uk.

The Musicians Benevolent Fund has just launched the MBF Young Talent Awards 2008. Instrumentalists of 18 years or under are invited to apply for their share of an awards pot of up to £150,000. Last year almost 200 young people benefited from individual awards ranging from £200 to £1000.

These Awards are an important source of funding for young musicians with exceptional talent who are in financial need. Under 18s can benefit from funding to cover the cost of buying an instrument, music lessons with a private teacher etc. For the first time this year awards are also offered for instrument purchase to those who are aged 18 and about to enter their first year at university or college. Closing date is 12 June. www.mbf.org.uk