ONE of the nation's finest ensembles is back in town this weekend with a rising and dynamic star of the conducting world on the podium.

The distinguished Halle orchestra takes to Kendal Leisure Centre's Westmorland Hall stage on Saturday (March 3, 7.30pm) under the baton of Jonathon Heyward, rated as one of classical music's most vibrant new talents.

Jonathon, who hails from Charleston, South Carolina, took over from Jamie Phillips as the Halle's assistant conductor in the autumn of 2016.

In 2015, aged 23, he won the 54th International Competition for Young Conductors in Besançon, taking the Grand Prize, a prestigious award which has launched the careers of some of classical music’s most successful conductors.

Since, he's conducted the St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, Basel Symphony Orchestra, Prague Symphony Orchestra, Panda Wind Orchestra in Japan, the Philharmonie Zuidnederlandand, the Orchestre National de Lille, the Orchestre National de Lorraine, Chineke! Orchestra in the UK, and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra for a production of Kurt Weill’s Lost in the Stars, as part of his Conducting Fellowship supported by the Kurt Weill Foundation.

His two year Halle appointment involves assisting music director Sir Mark Elder, acting as music director of the Halle Youth Orchestra and wielding the baton for the Manchester-based orchestra's concerts at home and elsewhere.

Originally a cellist, Jonathon started his conducting studies at the Boston Conservatory in the class of maestro Andrew Altenbach. He went on to be assistant conductor for both its opera department and the Boston Opera Collaborative from 2012 to 2014, where he worked on productions such as La Bohème, Zauberflöte and The Rape of Lucretia. In 2013 he became the youngest ever semi-finalist at the Blue Danube International Opera Conducting Competition and furthered his education with postgraduate studies with Sian Edwards at London's Royal Academy of Music, from where he graduated in June 2016.

Saturday's concert is part of the Lakeland Sinfonia Concert Society's 2017-18 series and opens in noble Nordic style with a selection from Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg's popular music for Peer Gynt, including Morning and In the Hall of the Mountain King, which should set the pace for an evening of intense tunes and exciting rhythms.

Laurence Rogers is the Halle’s choice as soloist in Richard Strauss’ horn concerto, which was composed by the teenage Richard as a birthday present for his professional horn playing father’s 60th birthday. These days its one of the most frequently played horn concertos in the repertoire.

The concert concludes with arguably Jean Sibelius’s best known symphony, his second, written at a time when Finland was seeking freedom from its Russian overlords and has become one of the great classics of the 20th Century. Apparently, the Finnish composer himself called it "a confession of the soul" and the emotionally charged build up to the final climatic appearance in the last movement will undoubtedly bring the concert to a powerful conclusion.

There will be a pre-concert talk at 6.30pm.

Following on from the Halle on Saturday, March 17 (7.30pm) will be the Royal Northern Sinfonia, returning to the Westmorland Hall for the next concert in the popular series with RNS music director Lars Vogt also in the soloist's spotlight.

Lars - a terrific pianist - will perform Beethoven's Piano Concerto no 4 in G Major.

The all-Beethoven programme opens with his 1801 Prometheus overture and finishes with Beethoven's fourth symphony.

Born in Duren, West Germany, Lars studied at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover with Karl-Heinz Kämmerling. He rose to prominence after winning second prize at the 1990 Leeds International Piano Competition and has since gone on to give major concerto and recital performances. He founded the festival Spannungen in Heimbach (Eifel) in 1998.

He landed the illustrious RNS post in 2014.

The final Lakeland Sinfonia Concert Society performance of the 2017/18 series comes on April 28, featuring the eminent BBC Philharmonic and cellist Leonard Elschenbroich with Elgar's masterful Cello Concerto in E Minor central to the programme.

Once again, the Sinfonia society has delivered a season of eight, top-tier concerts from the creme da la creme of classical music.

Book online at www.lakelandsinfonia.org.uk or on 0333-666-3366.