2014 provided another stellar 12 months across the whole spectrum of the arts.

For me it was a year where Kendal College's deputy head of Creative Arts Hilary Pezet and her performing arts students really shone. They teamed up with Staveley Choral’s respected musical director Philip Burton for an ambitious theatrical performance of one of the nation’s most cherished choral works – Handel’s Messiah, with Philip’s cleverly conceived version putting the drama of the story centre stage.

And the college's Sunshine of Leith production was an amazing success with many young actors giving unbelievable individual performances.

Luke Sharples is one such potential star; terrific stage presence and voice, he also fronts his own band The Fiction; definitely one to watch.

Let's be frank though, without the right guidance and encouragement from teachers young talent in our schools and colleges wouldn't flourish quite the same.

Look not further than head of music at The Lakes School, Adam Theobald. He pulled off a beauty putting together a production of Miss Saigon and his students rose magnificently to the occasion.

Talking of quality performances, my music event of 2014 was seeing the BBC Philharmonic at Kendal Leisure Centre in April as part of the Lakeland Sinfonia Concert Society series.

Quite honestly, it was sublime and soloist, violinist Elena Urioste, was brilliant. A contender for the crown of Nicola Benedetti if I ever did see one!

Speaking of Nicola, I have to hand it to gifted pianist Anthony Hewitt for the continuing success of his Ulverston International Music Festival, which this year included a concert by Ms Benedetti.

Another Ulverstonian who really impressed in 2014 was saxophone player Jess Gillam, who made it to the woodwind finals of the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition.

Staying with Ulverston yet again, it was great to hear the scripted prose of one of the region’s most successful scribes Zosia Wand aired on a BBC Radio Four prime time slot. Ulverston-based Zosia’s Treehouse drama ran for five compelling nights. Zosia also ingeniously and artfully penned Hansel and Gretel, The Dukes theatre's annual outdoor play, magically staged within Lancaster's Williamson Park.

It's also fair to say over at Kendal Midday Concert Club, artistes secretary John Hiley is also doing a sterling job attracting five star performers to the Kendal Town Hall series.

Also in the theatrical spotlight, it was good to see Andy Whittle return to the Lakeland stage in Kendal Operatic Society’s Oliver and I interviewed one of my personal favourites, grand master of playwrights, Alan Ayckbourn, whose latest play featured in the Old Laundry Autumn Festival at Bowness. What a guy!

As for visual arts - apart from my trip to the Mondrian exhibition at Tate Liverpool - my must-see exhibitions locally included Abbot Hall Art Gallery's British Surrealism Unlocked and the cleverly constructed still life paintings of Patrick Caulfield, and Farfield Mill Arts and Heritage Centre pulled off a major coup bringing a stunning show by Dutch felting outfit Viltkontaktgroep to the Sedbergh venue.

Fond memories of the work of Bardy Crewdson came rushing back as her daughter Susie Ibbotson and family put together a retrospective, brimming with Bardy’s portraits, landscapes plus fashion drawings as a fundraiser for MIND and Windermere Art Society transformed the town’s airy Ladyholme Centre into Tate Windermere for a really good exhibition, one of the many praiseworthy shows by the region’s art societies; David Best winning the Robin Lowry Memorial Cup.

It was also the year that many events were staged to commemorate the beginning of the First World War.

Burneside Amateur Theatrical Society set the bar high with The Accrington Pals, which included several extremely accomplished individual performances; Kendal Community Theatre put on Oh, What a Lovely War, a memorable – and what must have been exhausting for the cast - entertainment with bags of spirit and Cumbria Choral Initiative staged a momentous performance of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem, just to name a few.

Julie Tait’s Lakes International Comic Art festival and Mintfest, Lake District Summer Music, the Armitt, Old Laundry Theatre, Anne Pierson’s Sheepfest (and Farfield Mill), the Wordsworth Trust, Theatre by the Lake’s summer season and Kendal's Brewery Arts Centre’s all embracing programme, continued to put the Cumbrian arts scene on the tourist trail and affirmed even more our area as an important "cultural destination."

Not forgetting, the Lakeland Arts Trust venues Blackwell, Abbot Hall and the Museum of Lakeland Life and Industry and the many first class art houses, groups and societies across the region.

On a more solemn, yet, musical note, Lakeland lost one of its best loved musicians - Lesley Talbot.

Lesley was a lovely lady who had a marvellous passion and infectious enthusiasm for music, which touched all who knew her, and alongside husband Bob were the 'dream team' music teachers at Kendal's Queen Katherine School for decades.