SOUTH Cumbria Musical Festival and the Mary Wakefield Westmorland Music Festival go head to head this coming week in a fantastic feast of music making.

The two festival giants stage their respective gatherings with scores of competitive classes and quality performances on the bill.

SCMF is staged at Ulverston's Coronation Hall and opens with brass classes on Sunday, including solo, duet and band performances. Star turns include Barrow Shipyard Junior Band, Barrow's Brasstastic and Millom's Holborn Hill Royal Brass Band Schools Section vying for the The Rotary Club of Ulverston Bursary and Shield and brass heavyweights Dalton Town Band blowing solo as the sole entry for The John W Latimer Cup.

South Cumbria Musical Festival speech classes get off to a flying start on Monday (March 25), with poetry, readings and acted dramatisation. Tuesday is piano day and Wednesday there are classes for recorder, music making, woodwind, percussion and strings.

The school years vocal classes take place throughout Thursday and Friday. The school choir classes take place on Thursday afternoon and evening. Friday evening features adult vocal classes with performances of songs from shows and folk songs along with other vocal classes. Saturday morning sees performances from the adult choirs.

Saturday evening (March 30) is the always special Gala Night, as usual with performers from all disciplines from throughout the week showcasing their talent. There are also vocalists competing for a cash prize.

Accomplished horn player, Catherine Clarke will open the Gala and vocalist, Clare Eccles, will bring it to close.

The evening includes the prestigious Esther C Crockery and Aprille C Bonner Performance Award. Tickets are available on 01229-584653, or during festival week from the Coronation Hall or on 07773-403686. Festival programmes are available from Ulverston Library and The Full Octave, Tudor Square, Dalton.

Chairman Bob McClean said they were really looking forward to this year’s festival. "We have performers of all ages, individuals, ensembles, both school and adult choirs and bands and we finish the week with a gala night on Saturday with winning performers and guest artists. We hope to see people coming to enjoy a feast of local musical talent."

Mary Wakefield week also begins in terrific style at Kendal Parish Church tonight (Saturday, 7.30pm).

The opener promises to be a great night of music with the ‘wonderful’ Westmorland Orchestra sharing the parish church spotlight with Cumbria Festival Chorus for French composer Hector Berlioz’ powerful choral masterpiece Te Deum.

The orchestra’s esteemed conductor Richard Howarth says that it’s lovely to see two local groups collaborating for the special musical event: “On many levels it is a healthy and uplifting project for all involved. I’m looking forward to a grand occasion.”

Chorus master extraordinaire, Ian Jones, will direct CFC. “Berlioz loved to write music on a grand, ceremonial scale imagining it always being performed in huge spaces by vast numbers of performers. For his monumental setting of the words of the Te Deum he imagined a space with an organ at one end and the orchestra and chorus at the other. That is exactly what we have in Kendal Parish Church. We will not be able quite to match Berlioz’s number of performers but our 120-strong chorus and 60-strong orchestra will certainly be able to make the old church resound to much thrilling music.”

As well as the chorus and orchestra the piece will demand the best from the church’s fine organ, played by well known musician, Andy Plowman. Acclaimed tenor Christopher Steele will also be centre stage: “I’m really looking forward to singing Berlioz’ excellent music; the tenor solo has wonderful, lyrical lines.”

Tonight's programme also includes Mendelssohn’s fifth Reformation symphony played by the Westmorland. The composer’s sister named this work as it was written to mark the 300th anniversary of the Presentation of the Augsberg Confession - a key event in the protestant reformation.

Tickets are available from Kendal Tourist Information Centre in Finkle Street and at the door.

The biennial Mary Wakefield Westmorland Music Festival has been part of Westmorland’s musical life since 1885 when Mary, daughter of a Kendal Quaker banking family and a keen musician, assembled local choirs to sing and compete together.

This time around all the MWWMF adjudicated classes take place in Kendal Town Hall, due to the redevelopment of Kendal United Reformed Church into apartments.

Adjudicators will be Marilynne Davies and Christina Thomson, and the line up of accompanists for the week are Ian Pattinson, David Battersby, Ken Forster and Richard Bromley, all well-known and versatile local pianists.

The busy adjudicated classes run from Monday to Thursday starting at 9.30am, and begin on March 25 with the instrumental classes, interspersed with vocal classes for years three to four and five to six, together with classes for young composers. Monday evening sees the choral classes for youth choirs and adult groups, with six youth groups and seven adult choirs taking part; always an excellent evening’s entertainment.

On Tuesday the vocal solos begin in earnest, with a whole morning of songs from the shows from performers in years seven to nine; the rest of the day includes vocal duets and solo folksong classes. The songs continue into Wednesday, with songs from the shows from performers in years 10-11 and 12-13.

Adult solo classes have been reintroduced for this year: one class for novice soloists who have never before won a prize at a music festival as an adult, and a class for more experienced soloists, with an entry of eight singers; each will sing two contrasting songs. This session also features songs from Gilbert and Sullivan operettas.

The recently introduced Pop Ballad class is staged in festival Thursday (March 28), with 17, year seven-nine performers; each perform to a backing track using a microphone.

Friday’s Festival Showcase Concert, features some of the best performances from the week’s classes. The evening will include the finals of the prestigious Jim Noble Award. The award of £500 - in memory of Jim Noble, a stalwart of the festival for many years - will be given for the best overall solo performance in all the classes for individual performers under the age of 21. Never an easy task, the panel of adjudicators for the award are John Hiley, Geoffrey Field, and Alan and Chris Noble, son and grandson of Jim Noble.

Finally, to the roof raising, rousing close on Saturday, March 30, when six huge local choral societies get together to entertain each other with 20-minute programmes of song. There are two sessions, at 10.30am and 2pm, taking place at Kendal’s St Thomas’s Church. Leader for the day is Will Prideaux, director of Peterborough Male Voice Choir. The morning and afternoon sessions will each end with the combined singing of the Festival Chorale, a fine vocal tradition that has been performed since the eminent festival first began in 1885.

As always chairman Mary Powney is looking forward to another glorious festival: “With a record 275 entries we’re sure of an exciting week.”