AS well as the internationally-renowned Primrose Piano Quartet, this year’s West Meon Music Festival, to be held in the village from September 16-18, will host leading clarinettist Michael Collins and two brilliant young “rising stars” – violinist Zhivko Georgiev and guitarist Daniel Bovey.

The festival, now in its sixth year, was founded by PrimPrimrose – Susanne Stanzeleit (violin), Dorothea Vogel (viola), Andrew Fuller (cello) and John Thwaites (piano): all leading chamber musicians long associated with such well-known ensembles as the Allegri, Edinburgh and Maggini string quartets.

Michael Collins, winner of the woodwind final in the inaugural BBC Young Musician of the Year competition in 1978, will join the Primrose for Mozart’s ever-popular Clarinet Quintet in A major at the festival’s Saturday evening concert, as well as performing Poulenc’s Sonata for Clarinet and Piano.

The three-day festival features seven concerts, including the opening candlelit concert of Viennese classics, an informal children’s concert, “rising stars” at nearby Warnford church, late-night folk hootenanny at The Thomas Lord Pub, a Sunday morning coffee concert, and an early afternoon finale, including Dvorak’s Piano Quintet Op 81.

The festival will combine music-making with support for its chosen charity. This year’s beneficiary is The Rosemary Foundation, which provides hospice-at-home services in Hampshire.

Ticket prices for the concerts range from £10 to £19.50. For more details or to buy tickets, visit westmeonmusic.co.uk. Alternatively, tickets are available from One Tree Books in Petersfield, or by post from the West Meon Music Festival box office, Walnut Cottage, Hampton Hill, Swanmore, SO32 2QN.