THE momentous Ulverston International Music Festival concludes on Sunday (June 19).

This year, festival founder and its artistic director Anthony Hewitt has returned to the Ulverston stage. He had to sit out last year's gathering following a cycling accident which left him with a fractured and broken shoulder, which had to be reattached surgically with a titanium plate. He also broke his collar bone.

However, so far in the 2016 10-day festival, the Ulverston born and bred internationally renowned musician has played his part superbly and still has a concert with one of the leading chamber orchestras in the country, the Royal Northern Sinfonia, to come at Ulverston's Coronation Hall, on Friday, June 17 (7.30pm), plus a piano master class on Sunday during Charity Concerts Day, a full-day dedicated to showcasing the talents of amateur and semi-professional musicians with all donations and proceeds going to St Mary's Hospice.

In between, on Saturday (June 18, 7.30pm) Anthony features in the ENTango line-up with dancers Miriam Orcutt and Dante Culcuy, bandoneonist, Eduardo Garcia, and violinist, Daniel Rowland.

Anthony - who is Ulverston born and bred - says it has took him almost year to recover fully.

"I was playing two-handed on the radio seven weeks after the accident, which was very quick; but I didn’t play anything particularly demanding until the following October, which was five months after the accident. My shoulder has started to feel normal in the last month, so all in all, its taken just under a full year to get back into full swing."

Just back from a week teaching and coaching 14-18 year olds - plus a recital - at one of the top conservatoires in China (China Conservatory), he explained that it was the biggest UIMF yet and he was looking forward to playing with the Royal Northern Sinfonia on Friday: "I’ll be playing Brahms’ First Concerto which is the biggest romantic concerto I’ve played here at the festival. The RNS are one of the best orchestras in the country. I’m so happy that my shoulder has recovered just in time for this piece which requires a lot of power.

Festival box office 01229-587140.