THE Academy of St Olave’s chamber orchestra is delighted to be returning to the newly restored St Olave’s church, in Marygate, York, on June 25 for its summer concert, Mozart In Prague.

The orchestra had to move its previous concert at the very last moment last January on discovery that the church was unsafe and would need to close for several months.

This month's 8pm concert will be a new departure for the Academy under its distinguished director, Alan George, of Fitzwilliam String Quartet fame. The programme focuses on Mozart’s happy association with the city of Prague, where he premiered several symphonies and where his comic opera The Marriage Of Figaro achieved great popularity.

The Academy will present a concert performance of its overture, followed by a number of arias and excerpts from the opera. Alan George has assembled a formidable array of vocal soloists to do this: Judith Cunnold, Bethany Seymour, Jo Rondel and George Clark.

The programme will conclude with one of Mozart’s most sophisticated and tuneful symphonies, also composed in the city by which it is known, Symphony 38 in D major, Prague.

The concert will support the York charity Jessie’s Fund, which provides music therapy for severely disabled, terminally and critically ill children, a cause dear to the hearts of members of the orchestra and its director, the father of Jessie, in whose memory the charity was founded.

The orchestra's chairman, the cellist Christine Smith, says: "In his lamentably short life, Mozart composed some of the most inspiring and uplifting music ever written, and we're very excited to be able to present this glorious music created at the peak of his powers and in doing so to work with an outstanding group of vocal soloists. A wonderful and entertaining evening awaits our audience."

Tickets cost £12, concessions £11, students £5, on the door or from Visit York in Museum Street or on 01904 550099.