TICKETS for Burley Summer Festival's musical offerings go on sale on Monday... and there are plenty of events to suit most tastes.

Since its beginning in 2009, the festival has been privileged to have the involvement of Opera North performers and will do so again this year on two Saturday evenings.

The Wharfedale Chamber Ensemble makes its regular appearance in the festival, this time on August 20. Conducted by David Greed, leader of the Orchestra of Opera North, and led by Burley’s own Clare Richards, the evening will include Britten’s Simple Symphony and Dvorak’s Serenade for Strings, with Melinda Csenki as the soloist in Bach’s E major Violin Concerto.

The second Saturday in the Festival, August 27, has its established opera evening and is looking again for a sell-out performance. Led for the second year by local singer Joanne Dexter (soprano), who works with Opera North, it will also feature John Cunningham (bass baritone), a soloist with Royal Opera (Covent Garden), also making a return visit, and Hannah Mason (mezzo soprano), a soloist with English National Opera. The concert includes cornet soloist Andy Novell (principal cornet with York Railway Institute Band).

Performers will again be accompanied by Peter Selwyn, a leading conductor at Opera North and a lecturer at the RCM. Their programme will include operatic favourites from Bizet, Mozart and Gershwin, together with duets and trios from other composers and some lighter items in the second half of the programme

During the ten days of the festival week, there will be Music in the Park performances from Anchor Dance Band from Shipley, the Silsden Brass Band, the Earls of Dixie and the Ukelele Jammers, bands at the nearby Red Lion and evening performances from King Pleasure and the Biscuit Boys and One Night Stan.

Choral offerings will include the Menston-based Ladies Please Choir, singing to support the link between Tereli (Mali) and Burley-in-Wharfedale, and an evening of gospel songs and spirituals from St Mary’s Singers, in support of the Western Nepal Disability Trust.

Children will have the opportunity to join in rock and ukulele workshops and to find out about singing with the Shine Gospel Choir, while adults can have a taster of singing with the Community Choir, join in with the Ukelele Jammers or sing Wesleyan hymns to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Methodist Church in Burley.

The busiest day in the festival is on August 21, when Churches Together in Burley will hold a Songs of Praise-style service in the park, to which all are invited.

The festival programme is now available on the burleysummerfestival.org website, and copies can also be found in local libraries. Tickets will be on sale from Monday via the website or from Burley library on Monday afternoons and Saturday mornings in the run-up to the festival.