Festival Highlights

B'NAI B'RITH JEWISH MUSIC FESTIVAL Zemel Choir Sephardic music, sung in Ladino, plus the public premiere of Ronald Senator's Arise My Love (taken from The Song of Songs) Sun 7.30 St John's Smith Sq (071-222 1061). Milhaud Centenary Concert The Ben Uri Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Sydney Fixman, with violin soloist Rima Shushanskaya in a musical tribute to the prolific Jewish-Provencal member of 'Les Six': music by Milhaud, Memdelssohn, Lipkin and Suk Tue 8pm West London Synagogue, Upper Berkeley St W1 (071-586 4728). Noemy Belinkaya & the Orpheus Duo Two pianos and flute with music by Latvian and Israeli composers, plus Chopin, Schnittke, Shostakovich etc Thu 8pm PR, South Bank (071 928 8800)

BUXTON FESTIVAL Agrippina Roger Vignoles directs Adrian Slack's new Handel staging from the harpsichord Wed 7.45 Opera House, then 20, 22, 24, 28, 30 July, 1 Aug. Italian Girl in Algiers Jane Glover conducts Rossini's patriotic comedy From Sat 18. Bookings: 0298 72190. To 2 Aug

CAMBRIDGE FESTIVAL Simon Preston Organ recital: Bach, Ives, Reger, Tournemire, Durufle Fri 8pm King's College Chapel. Bookings: 0223 357851. To 2 Aug

CHELTENHAM: Caritas An anchoress has second thoughts in Robert Saxton's Arnold Wesker-scripted drama of religious fanaticism and indifference at the time of the Peasants Revolt. Opera North production Tonight 7.30 Everyman Thtr pounds 5- pounds 19; Steven Isserlis The brilliant young cellist plays more Saxton (Toccata) plus Tavener (Thrinos), Britten, Maconchy and Bach Sun 11am Pittville Pump Rm pounds 5- pounds 11. Michael Nyman Premiere performance of the English Experimentalist's Piano Trio Tue 11am Pittville Pump Rm. Box office: 0242-523690. Ends 19 July

CHESTER SUMMER MUSIC Tadaaki Otaka conducts the BBC Welsh SO: Mendelssohn (Calm Sea & Prosperous Voyage), Bruch (Violin Concerto No 1, soloist Dong-Suk Kang), Sibelius (Symphony No 2) Fri 7.30 Cathedral. Bookings: 0244 340392. To 25 July

CITY OF LONDON Corydon Singers & Orchestra Motets and masses by Bruckner, Brahms, Mendelssohn and Robert Simpson Wed 8pm Southwark Cathedral. Choir of the Chapel Royal Music by Gentlemen of the Chapel Royal 1550- 1650: Gibbons, Muny, Byrd, Purcell, Blow Fri 7.30 St Peter ad vincula, Tower of London. Bookings: 071-248 4260. To 22 July

HENLEY London Chamber Orchestra Christopher Warren-Green directs Gershwin arrangements, Copland's Quiet City and Tchaikovsky's Second Serenade Tonight 8.30 The Floating Stage. Bookings: 0491-411353.

LICHFIELD Yan Pascal Tortelier conducts the BBC Philharmonic in Ravel (La Valse), Berlioz (Symphonie Fantastique) and the premiere of Michael Blake Watkins's Cello Concerto (soloist Tim Hugh) Tonight 7.30 Cathedral. Bookings: 0543-257298

SHEFFIELD La Marguerita Baroque music by Telemann, Boismortier and Marin Marais Mon 7.30 Upper Chapel, Norfolk St. Opera Spectacular with Fireworks Josephine Barstow, Bonaventura Bottone and Donald Maxwell, plus the orchestra of Opera North and the Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus in a programme of popular operatic overtures, arias and choruses. Richard Baker comperes Sun 19 July 7.30 Don Valley Bowl, East End Park. Bookings: 0747-796167.

THAXTED Mayumi Seiler (replacing the advertised Tasmin Little, who is now playing at the Warwick Festival instead) plays the Brahms Violin Concerto with the City of London Sinfonia under Richard Hickox. Also: Beethoven's Coriolan overture, Mendelssohn's Scottish Symphony Tonight 7.30. Travelling Opera: Cos fan tutte Mozart's Enlightenment comedy reset in an Edwardian Oxford college Sun 7.30. Thaxted Church. Bookings: 0371-830350.

WARWICK Tasmin Little plays Mozart's Violin Concerto in A with the European Community Chamber Orchestra directed by Eivand Aardland. Plus Telemann (Les Nations), Schubert (German Dances), Haydn (Symphpony No 64, 'Tempora Mutantur') Tonight 7.45 Guy Nelson Hall, Myton Rd. Opera Restor'd Peter Holman directs a double-bill of 18th-century comic operas: Pergolesi's La serva padrona (Servant into Mistress) and Charles Dibdin's The Ephesian Matron (after Petronius Arbiter) Sun 7.45 Shire Hall, Northgate St. Bookings: 0926- 496277. Until 12 July