RUSSELL Watson, the tenor voice of Salford, will be joined by Ewa Salecka's York community choir Prima Vocal Ensemble for his Songs From The Heart tour date in York on Saturday.

Watson, 49, is a strong supporter of community choirs, especially after his time as a judge on the BBC's Last Choir Standing. He so enjoyed being part of that prime-time show that last year’s Up Close & Personal tour featured local choirs at each concert and now he has once again invited choirs to join him on stage at this year's dates.

“Last year’s choirs brought an added energy to the show, something you can only achieve when a range of voices come together as one, and I’m delighted to have the opportunity to perform with local choirs once again this year," said Watson.

In 2015, the "People's Tenor" complemented a sold-out British tour with singing to 350,000 people at the US National Memorial Day in Washington DC and guest performances at the Caracalla Unicef Concert in Rome and the BBC Proms In the Park: 92 live performances in total.

This year, Watson is to record an album at Ennio Morricone’s studio in Rome that will include several original pieces co-written by Watson himself. He will be joined by the orchestras of The Vatican and La Scala, Blondie's Nigel Harrison and such musicians as Clive Deamer, Danny Robinson; Mikey Rowe and Gregory Darling.

A selection of songs from this forthcoming album will be previewed at Saturday's Songs From The Heart show, where he will perform his best-loved material too.

Tickets for this 7.30pm concert are on sale on 0844 854 2757 or at yorkbarbican.co.uk