THIS summer’s King’s Lynn Festival, being staged on July 17-30, will be a truly international event with top names from the worlds of classical and popular music and the arts.

New Zealand soprano Hayley Westenra, whose sings a wide variety of songs from both the classical and popular repertoire, will be accompanied by a small group of musicians when she appears at the Corn Exchange on Sunday July 24.

Another big attraction will be the return of the Czech National Symphony Orchestra and the charismatic conductor Libor Pesek for the final concert on Saturday July 30. Their programme will include Dvorak’s Symphony No 7 and Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto.

Singapore-born pianist Melvyn Tan will give a recital at the Corn Exchange on Thursday July 28 including music by Bach, Beethoven, Chopin and Schubert.

Other international artists include 18th century Italian music specialists La Serenissima and Swedish-born harpsichord virtuoso Carole Cerasi on Early Music Day (Saturday July 23), and the Vienna Mozart Trio (Thursday July 21).

Violin virtuoso Tasmin Little will perform in St Nicholas’ Chapel with its nationally-acclaimed acoustic on Tuesday July 19, and jazz singer Clare Teal will be joined by a trio at St George’s Guildhall on Friday July 29.

The huge-popular Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain are to return on Tuesday July 26 with a new programme entitled Ukulelescope in which they will perform special arrangements and compositions to accompany clips from silent films.

King’s Lynn Festival Chorus will feature at the opening concert on Sunday July 17 in the Corn Exchange with works by Vivaldi, Bach and Purcell.

St George’s Guildhall, the largest surviving medieval guildhall in England, is another significant venue which provides the setting for several festival events.

A lively and light-hearted evening, on Wednesday July 27, is entitled The Virginia Monologues: Why Growing Old is Great. It is the hit Edinburgh Fringe show featuring columnist and agony aunt, Virginia Ironside.

Classical historian, Professor Andrew Wallace-Hadrill will give an illustrated talk on the ancient cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum in the Guildhall on Wednesday July 20 and author Max Jones will commemorate the 100th anniversary of Captain Scott’s fateful Terra Nova expedition with a talk Scott of the Antarctic: From Hero to Villain? on Monday July 18.

The literary dinner will be in Lynn Town Hall on Friday July 22 and on Monday July 25 to Friday July 29 morning coffee concerts will be held in the Town Hall.

Visit www.kingslynnfestival.org.uk, call the festival office for a brochure and details of priority booking on 01553-767557. The brochure will be out in mid-May when the box office will open at the Corn Exchange (01553-764864).