FOR many classical music lovers it really wouldn't feel like Christmas if jovial conductor Wyn Davies didn't turn up on the Lakeland Sinfonia podium.

So, it's glad tidings indeed that the indefatigable Mr Davies has found time to stop off on his globe-trotting career and bring his wealth of experience, unerring skill and wonderful sense of humour to once more grace Kendal Leisure Centre's Westmorland Hall stage on Saturday (December 9) as part of the Lakeland Sinfonia Concert Society series.

One of the nation's favourite baton wielders, Wyn was born in south Wales and graduated from Christ Church Oxford.

He works with a wide and illustrious range of opera companies, orchestras and theatre companies and has been director of music to New Zealand Opera since 2005.

Wyn has also conducted the Welsh and English National operas, Scottish Opera and Opera North, and has worked with the eminent Hallè Orchestra and other leading British ensembles.

As for Saturday's Lakeland Sinfonia programme, it has a festive flavour with Tchaikovsky’s colourful music from his Christmas ballet, the ever-popular The Nutcracker, entertaining with the whirling of waltzing flowers, Christmas marches, Russian, Chinese and Arabian dances and, of course, spreading a little musical sparkle, the Sugar Plum Fairy herself.

The Nutcracker was premiered at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg on December 18, 1892. Although the original production was apparently unsuccessful, the complete Nutcracker ballet has enjoyed enormous popularity since the late 1960s and is performed by countless ballet companies.

The Sinfonia concert's opening piece Gli Uccelli (The Birds) by Respighi will delight ornithologists as well as music fans with its Dove, Hen, Nightingale and a very persistent Cuckoo. Rossini adds to the ornithological interest with The Thieving Magpie overture to his semi-serious, semi-comic opera La Gazza Ladra and

gifted horn player Ben Goldscheider will be in the soloist's spotlight performing Mozart’s Third Horn Concerto.

Ben was a BBC Young Musician of the Year 2016 finalist and is a rising star of the brass playing fraternity.

He has rapidly acquired international attention and has made multiple performances of both solo and chamber music across Europe, including a world premiere with the great conductor Daniel Barenboim and the UK Premiere with the BBC Singers of a work by John Taverner for solo horn, organ and choir. Alongside his concert schedule he's studying in Berlin at the Barenboim-Said Akademie.

Ben started playing the French horn aged nine, was principal horn with the National Youth Orchestra and has already played with the Philharmonia.

The third of Lakeland Sinfonia Concert Society's eight 2017/2018 concerts, it promises to be a terrific night of music making.

Concert society performances start at 7.30pm.

For tickets and further information on the Lakeland Sinfonia Concert Society series visit www.lakelandsinfonia.com or telephone 0333-666-3366.