A NEW year, and the curtain rises on the eagerly awaited second half of the 2016/2017 Kendal Midday Concert Club season next Wednesday, January 11, with the eminent players of the Royal Northern Sinfonia Ensemble.

The RNS has built a distinctive reputation as a fresh-thinking and versatile orchestra and next Wednesday's Kendal Town Hall performance promises to be one of the highlights of the concert club's popular series.

Moving on to January 25, Concerto Cristofori presents folksong settings from the Thomson collection of Haydn songs published in 1802, plus a selection of Beethoven songs; Scottish favourites to mark the birth of Robert Burns the same day in 1759. Formed in 2001, the group is named after Bartolomeo Cristofori, who invented the fortepiano.

Another of the season's top notch performances will be courtesy of one of the UK’s most gifted pianists, Anthony Hewitt, who has enjoyed a prolific performing career spanning two decades. Anthony - who appears on February 8 - is director of Ulverston Music Festival, and has made concerto appearances with the National Symphony Orchestra in the USA and the English Chamber Orchestra in the Royal Festival Hall.

Violinist, Gina McCormack, and pianist, Nigel Clayton, provide a five star performance on February 22, the flamboyant, theatrical and virtuosic foursome of Red Priest blaze a trail of brilliant Baroque to Kendal Town Hall on March 8, and the prizewinning Zelkova Quartet brings the series to a triumphant conclusion on March 22.

Concerts start at 1pm. Snack lunches are available from 11.50am.