RIPON International Festival has announced its programme for this year’s celebration of jazz, folk and world music, which will take place from September 5- 19.

The performers will include singer Mor Kabasi, purveyor of spine-tingling gipsy music, who has been described as “one of the great young divas of the global music scene alongside the likes of Yasmin Levy and Mariza”.

She will perform to Joe Taylor’s guitar accompaniment in the candlelit setting of the ancient church of Nun Monkton on September 17.

Pianist and Ellington scholar Keith Nichols, BBC Jazz Award Winner, and the Blue Devils Ellington Orchestra, bring jazz greats to Ripon on September 12. The band uses the UK’s leading stylists on every instrument and specialises in recreating the music of Duke Ellington in the 1920s and 1930s, playing masterpieces such as Black & Tan Fantasy, Mood Indigo, Solitude and Black Beauty, demonstrating the incredibly wide emotional range of Ellington’s work. The band has appeared regularly at the South Bank, all the major UK jazz festivals and throughout Europe.

Folk duo Nancy Kerr and James Fagan bring their class act of vocals, fiddles, mandolin and bouzouki to Helperby Millennium Hall (September 18).

There are also concerts by the Northern Sinfonia, Orchestra of Opera North and the Rodolfus Choir, conductor Janusz Piotrowicz, the Wihan Quartet, Music at Markenfield Hall, celebrity writers Carol Drinkwater, Jonathan Tulloch and Simon Armitage, drama, the Backbeat Percussion Quartet and more.

Visit www.riponinternationalfestival.com; to join the mailing list for a free brochure, ring 01765-605508