SINGERS and instrumentalists from the York district have the chance to take part in the 2004 York Early Music Christmas Festival in December.

The Minster Minstrels, York's early music ensemble for young people, will present the Young Minstrels' Guide To The Orchestra at the festival headquarters, the National Centre for Early Music in Walmgate, on December 11 at 4pm.

Playing instrumental music from the Renaissance to the Baroque, they will map out developments in orchestral writing, including excerpts from Handel's Water Music and Purcell's Dido and Aeneas.

From 11am to 4pm on December 12, lutenist David Miller, viol player Mark Levy and the NCEM's education manager, Cathryn Dew, will host a workshop day suitable for experienced instrumentalists, especially recorder and string players, singers and people new to music making.

This masterclass, entitled Where Dance Meets Song, will mark the 300th anniversary of the death of the French composer Marc-Antoine Charpentier. For more information, consult the website www.ncem.co.uk or ring 01904 658338.

The five-day festival will open with the Ebor Singers' concert by candlelight, A La Venue de Noel, in the Chapter House of York Minster on December 9. Director Paul Gameson will conduct a 7.30pm programme of Christmas music by Charpentier, honouring the Virgin Mary in a selection of carols, motets and dramatic oratorios.

Richard Boothby, viola de gamba, and Sophie Yates, harpsichord, will play J S Bach's Sonata in D Major and two Forqueray suites that "represent the pinnacle of technical difficulty in the solo French viol repertory", at the NCEM on December 10 at 7.30pm.

The Classic Buskers promise eccentric arrangements and derangements of most of the world's musical masterpieces in their 12.30pm show in the Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate, on December 11. Michael Copley will work his way through more than 30 woodwind instruments while Ian Moore will be content with only two, a pink accordion and a yellow one.

Violinist Andrew Manze will be on a double shift on December 11, as the soloist and director for the European Union Baroque Orchestra's evening concert at the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York. Works by Muffat, Vejvanovsky, Biber, Meder and Schmelzer and a brace of Vivaldi violin concertos form the 7.30pm programme.

Festival favourite Lucie Skeaping and The Burning Bush will take a seductive journey through vibrant Jewish music with klezmer, Hassidic dances, exotic Arab-influenced music from the Ottoman world and mystical ballads from the ghetto, on December 12 at the NCEM.

Lucie, vocals and violin, will be joined by Ben Harlan, clarinets; Roderick Skeaping, violin; Jon Banks, accordion and kanun; Robin Jeffrey, oud, darabukka and guitar; and Robert Levy, double bass.

Another festival regular, Emma Kirkby, will return to York for the closing concert, Praying For Reign: The Private Music Of The King-in-Waiting, at St Michael-le-Belfrey Church, High Petergate, on December 13 at 7.30pm.

Emma Kirkby & Friends, among them recorder player Pamela Thorby, David Miller and Mark Levy, will recall the sumptuous private concerts of the Grand Dauphin, Louis XIV's heir. Works for voices and recorder consort by Charpentier, Lully, d'Anglebert and Corbetta will feature.

Meanwhile, the NCEM will turn hot and steamy tonight when Operatunity director John La Bouchardier directs the vocal group I Fagiolini in The Full Monteverdi at 8pm. Passion and Italian wine will flow as six young couples sing the music of Monteverdi while exploring the boundaries of sexual relationships, from suspicion, through eroticism, to break-up.

For tickets, ring 01904 658338.

Updated: 15:41 Thursday, October 07, 2004