Heptonstall Church is the acoustically excellent venue for many of the music events.

The Royal Northern College of Music has a high reputation for excellence and the festival is delighted to welcome on Saturday evening June 16 the Chichele String Quartet in an evening of Haydn, Shostakovich and Beethoven.

And if you want a contrast and a pint of beer why not walk on after the concert to The White Lion just by the church and hear an Irish Acoustic Session. (More Irish music can be heard at the Canalside Gallery on Thursday June 28 at 9.00 when Fresh Eire entertain with pipes, fiddle and mandolin.

The Fusion Club perform on Friday June 29. Imagine, if you can, South Asian rhythms playing against the Aboriginal roots of didgeridoo; Celtic violin and accordion weaving melodies with Dhilruba and saxophone, piano and Indonesian gamelan. The idea began to take shape when seven professional musicians joined forces last year to create a new music piece marking the millennium and showcasing the fantastic cultural mix of our region. The company has now built on the runaway success of the pilot project to create a more permanent professional "global" music band, one that is also a community based family-world music orchestra — one that is open to all. They forge an innovative style of popular music that bridges the gaps between contemporary, pop and folk in a challenging and exciting way.

The Hepton Singers will premiere a commission entitled "As the very rocks themselves" composed by Paul Robinson with poems by local poet Donald Atkinson inspired by reading an account of the death of four young men from Iona who were lost at sea following a dance on the mainland. Hear this and songs by Dubussy and Ravel on Saturday June 30, 8.00.

The final concert of the festival (Sunday July 1) features David Nelson in Beethoven’s 2^nd Piano Concerto together with Leeds Chamber Orchestra. Works by Haydn and Elgar complete this imaginative and stimulating programme.