Tickets go on sale for Northern Aldborough Festival - boasting orchestras, tribute act, jazz and classical music

Sopranos, operatic stars, jazz vocalists and choral acts turn the North Yorkshire village into an epicentre for music from June 12 to 21.

This year's programme celebrates the artistry and power of the human voice, centred on the annual New Voices Singing Competition, which boasts a star-studded judging panel.

The UK-wide hunt for the year’s finest vocal classical talent offers a prize fund of £7,000 and performances at leading festivals for the winners.

The judging panel features operatic baritone Sir Thomas Allen, the pioneering female conductor Dame Jane Glover and pianist and founder of the Oxford Lieder Festival Sholto Kynoch.

Audiences experience acts normally seen on the cosmopolitan stage in the ancient St Andrew’s village church.

Now in its 31st year, a charity, the festival’s mission is to bring world-class acts to rural audiences, and provide a platform for rising stars of the classical scene.

A headline act features two musical luminaries: the mezzo soprano Dame Sarah Connolly with Dame Imogen Cooper on piano. Their programme includes the romantic and beautiful Woman’s Life and Love (Frauen-Liebe und Leben) by Schumann and songs by Brahms and Duparc.

Opening the festival fresh from their Proms debut is the Fantasia Orchestra. Home to some of the best of young British classical music talent, they will be joined by leading violinist Tamsin Waley-Cohen, performing Vaughan Williams Lark Ascending.

Under the baton of Tom Fetherstonhaugh, the programme includes Elgar's elegiac Serenade for Strings and Dvorak's Nocturne.

The festival also welcomes the leading British jazz vocalist Jacqui Dankworth and her Trio. She’ll showcase her unique vocal mastery in an intimate venue with a set featuring her favourite classics.

One of the UK’s most exciting opera companies, Wild Arts, performs Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love. The semi-staged comedy reimagines the legendary story in a dreamy 1950s seaside setting.

Audiences can picnic in the surrounds of Aldborough Manor before the performance.

Described as a ‘musical Bear Grylls’ the world-leading French horn player Ben Goldscheider teams up with the Heath Quartet to perform Mozart and Haydn.

Audiences can expect a spine-tingling evening with the critically-acclaimed singers of Armonico Consort as they sing Rachmaninov’s Russian masterpiece, The Vespers.

BBC Proms star, vocalist Thanda Gumede performs with a pianist and bassist bringing Neo-soul and gospel to a Grade II listed venue – The Old Hall in North Deighton.

The headline speaker this year is journalist and Times columnist Matthew Parris, who has spent 35 years writing about politics.

Closing the festival is the Last Night Outdoor Concert, set in the grounds of Aldborough Manor. This year’s headline act is the Killerz Tribute, one of the original tribute acts to The Killers, who will perform to1,000 festival-goers. Audiences are invited to bring a picnic and dance the night away, ending with an orchestrated firework display.

Aldborough’s late-night venue The Shed also returns for concert goers who want to continue festivities after the evening concerts in a relaxed environment, with a variety of live entertainment and refreshments.

For full programme and tickets, go to: https://aldboroughfestival.co.uk/