NO DOUBT Ian Jones and his merry choristers will be in a joyous mood as Levens Choir continues its 40th birthday celebrations with a double helping of choral magic.

The choir perform at Cartmel Priory, on Saturday, April 9, and St Anne’s Church, Ings, on Tuesday, April 12, with both programmes bursting with English music mostly from the early 20th Century. Vaughan Williams, Britten and Finzi – three of musical director Ian’s favourite composers – are all featured as are some of Ian’s best loved poets, including Shakespeare, whose death 400 years ago is also recognised.

Antony Christie, who joined the choir for the unforgettable memorial concert for the First World War centenary in November 2014, will again read the poems. The choir’s indefatigable accompanist and honorary member Adrian Self of Cartmel Priory will accompany some of the pieces, including his own setting of Gerard Manley Hopkins’ poem The May Magnificat. The choir will also sing George Shearing’s jazzy settings of five Shakespeare songs for which Ken Forster will relinquish his position among the choir’s basses and head for the piano.

Having started its tuneful journey as the result of a chance remark at a meeting in 1975 of Levens Young Wives Group, the highly thought of choral ensemble has developed a fine reputation for the quality of its singing and the adventurousness of its programmes - all under the baton of inspirational conductor and founder Ian.

The celebration of Shakespeare's 400th and Levens Choir's 40th anniversary will be - as the Bard himself wrote in The Tempest - awash with "sounds and sweet airs that give delight."

Tickets for the April concerts, which both start at 7.30pm, are available from Grange and Kendal TICs and Windermere Information. For more information or to book tickets by telephone call 01539-730590.

For further information visit www.levenschoir.net.