KENDAL Parish Church is to resound with Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius this Saturday evening (July 30) as the Lake District Summer Music festival begins.

It looks set to be an exquisite festival opener, with the composer's choral masterpiece performed by the Amabile Girls' Choir, the Northern Chamber Orchestra and the voices of the newly formed Cumbria Festival Chorus, with Ian Jones as conductor.

The fortnight-long festival programme is brimming with riches - 45 events in all - from Mozart to Shakespeare, Chinese folk music to the Candlelight Serenade finale on Friday, August 12.

"There's quite a strand running through of Mozart as a composer," said Kim Sargeant, LDSM's general manager, "not for any particular anniversary, just because we like his music and so do our audience."

The award-winning Škampa Quartet, visiting from the Czech Republic, will perform two of Mozart's great quintets on Friday, August 5, at St Thomas' Church, Kendal. The following Monday, the much-loved Chilingirian Quartet will continue the 'Mozart Quartets Plus' strand, also at St Thomas' Church, and on the closing day they will perform Mozart's String Sextet in E flat major, at Ambleside Parish Church.

"There's a tendency to think that, after 32 years, we've been there, seen it, done it, got the T-shirt," said Kim. "In actual fact there's a really good balance between pieces people will know and love; and equally our audience have said to us that they love being introduced to something new, being given a little bit of a challenge."

Kim believes that people will be "really intrigued" by the Silk and Bamboo Ensemble, playing Chinese folk music in the intimate surroundings of Blackwell Arts and Crafts House, near Bowness, on Monday, August 8.

Silk (si) and bamboo (zhu) are two of the eight ancient categories of Chinese musical instruments and there will be a chance to see the group's fiddles, lute, zithers and flutes close up.

For full details and tickets, visit www.ldsm.org.uk, phone 01539-742621 or visit the festival office at Stricklandgate House, 92 Stricklandgate, Kendal.