CLASSICAL MUSIC / Robert Maycock On Classical Music

Day-tripping to Cambridge is a tried and tested standby for the holiday season. Until last year, you didn't do it for the music. That was when the idea came up of launching a series of summer schools in early music, centred on Trinity Hall. Some of the world's finest medieval and renaissance buildings host music of their own age: it was so good that you might expect the professionals to keep it to themselves, but they decided to share it. This year, again, a clutch of starry public concerts linked with the schools is in full swing.

If you are cunning (and if you can find the transport) you can plan your visit to start when the conventional tourist day has passed its peak and linger on after they have all gone home. Today, with the Hilliard Ensemble in residence, you can bowl into Great St Mary's Church for a 4pm session of vocal music called 'Insomnia - nice title, given that Cambridge post-exam time is about the only place anybody is likely to suffer from insomnia in mid-afternoon. On Friday, turn up at 8pm to hear King's College Chapel (right) resounding with a collaboration between the Hilliards and the great jazz saxophonist, Jan Garbarek. This is their first time together in Britain, and they promise ancient polyphony alongside cool improvisations.

Next week, the Parley of Instruments are in charge for a baroque phase. Audiences can get to hear them in the dining hall at Trinity Hall on Saturday week as well as the more familiar surroundings of Trinity Chapel, next door, on the 4th. Elsewhere, the Cambridge Summer Recitals are in action too.

The most intriguing prospect here is the famed Swiss organist, Lionel Rogg, giving a 4pm recital with percussion, in St John's Chapel this coming Saturday.

Box office: Summer Schools concerts, 0223 352001 or 0223 354096. Summer Recitals, 0223 351786.

(Photograph omitted)