A YORK chamber orchestra will help sick children when it holds its their winter concert later this month.

The Academy of St Olave’s will give proceeds from the event to Jessie’s Fund, set up by their musical director Alan George and his wife Lesley Schatzberger when their nine-year-old daughter Jessie was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 1994. She died shortly afterwards.

The concert will be among the first at a new music venue in the city.

Mr George said: “We are looking forward to performing a trio of thrilling works by three of the great Germanic composers of the early 19th century: Beethoven, Schubert and Schumann; a combination sure to delight our audience.

We are also pleased to be one of the first orchestras to perform at York St John University’s Creative Centre Theatre, helping to introduce a new – and warm! - venue to the city’s music scene. Finally, I am delighted that the Academy has chosen once again to support Jessie’s Fund at this concert.”

The concert on January 21st will open with Schubert’s incidental music to Rosamunde, followed by Beethoven’s Leonore No 3 Overture before Schumann’s Symphony No 3, The Rhenish.

The event begins at 8pm and tickets cost £15 (£5 for students and accompanied under-18s) from the academy’s website www.academyofstolaves.org.uk.