RICHMOND can look forward to three cultural treats C including one musical premiere C as part of Swaledale Festival, which runs from May 24 to June 7.

Sponsorship from Shepherd Construction, which is building the new Richmond School, has secured a concert by the Northern Sinfonia, an evening with playwright Alan Plater and a performance by a leading South American ensemble just outside the town at Easby.

All of these will take place on June 4 during the second week of the festival.

The Northern Sinfonia, one of the worlds finest orchestras, will celebrate Johann Sebastian Bach in the evening at St Marys Church.

The concert features two of his most famous works: the Double Violin Concerto and the Third Brandenburg Concerto.

Bachs Oboe Concerto in D minor will also be performed, unusually with the solo part being played on the soprano saxophone by Tim Garland, who has been described as the finest player in the world.

As well as being a saxophone virtuoso, he is composer in residence at Newcastle University and at this years Swaledale Festival.

He has written for the Sinfonia, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the BBC Concert Orchestra, and his newly composed Homage to Father Bach, which includes references to the masters oft-forgotten improvisational prowess, will be given its world premire at the concert.

Earlier in the evening, Alan Plater will appear at the Georgian Theatre Royal. A prolific writer for theatre, television and print, he made his mark as a scriptwriter for Z Cars and with the seminal play, Close the Coalhouse Door.

Later came The Beiderbecke Affair, the 1980 adaptation of J B Priestleys The Good Companions for Yorkshire Television, Belonging, Peggy for You and Last of the Blonde Bombshells as well as scripts for Dalziel and Pascoe and Lewis.

Plater, who hails from Newcastle, was awarded a CBE in 2004 for services to drama.

St Agathas Church at Easby is the venue for Caliche, an ensemble which has promoted the music and culture of South America in Britain since 1986. The musicians play a range of instruments including panpipes, flutes, charangos and mandolins.

The wind instruments of the native South Americans, the strings of the Spaniards and the rhythms of the coastal black communities have combined to produce a rich folk tradition, and Caliche will introduce the audience to an impressive collection of Andean instruments, the origins of which are explained during performances.

ñ The guitar recital by John Williams and John Etheridge is sold out, as is the Music of Staphane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt concert by the Keith Stephen Hot Club Trio and Mike Piggott.

Tickets are still available, though selling fast, for a concert by the young virtuoso classical guitarist Carl Herring on Sunday, May 25, at St Marys Church, Arkengarth