Preparations are underway for the musical highlight of the year at the University of Birmingham. The Summer Festival of Music 2009 will include a diverse series of  concerts performed by the talented musicians at the University, on campus and around the city.

The festival begins on 12th June, with the New Music Ensemble concert. Held in the Elgar Concert Room at the University at 7pm, this free concert will feature contemporary compositions by both established and up-and-coming composers, and the programme will include works by current University of Birmingham Music students.

This year the Wind Band will be joined by the Saxophone Ensemble, the newest group to be performing in the festival. Come and enjoy the lively sounds of these two ensembles in the spectacular surroundings of Brindley Place on Saturday June 13th, at 3pm.

On Tuesday 16th June at 7.30pm the Summer Festival Symphony Orchestra will return to St Nicholas’ Church, Kings Norton, to perform a work by the winner of this year’s Composition Competition. This will be followed by dazzling performances by the winners of the Concerto Competition, all of whom are Final Year music students, performing for the last time before they graduate.

Programme details:

Variations - Ian Calow, Summer Festival Composition Competition winner

Finzi - Clarinet Concerto - Soloist Emily Koscia

Doppler - Double Flute Concerto - Soloists Cat Ford and Becca Sheppard

Saint-Saens - Cello Concerto - Soloist Mark Walkem

Grondahl - Trombone Concerto - Soloist Greg Coughlin

Tickets £8 adults, £6 concessions and £4 students, available from the Barber Institute and from the church.

This year’s Early Music Concert will be held in the Barber Institute of Fine Arts on 17th June at 2.30pm. University music students will transport you back to centuries past with an afternoon of Baroque and Renaissance music, performed on period instruments.

Tickets £5 adults, £4 concessions and £2 students, available from the Barber Institute.

In conjunction with the Chamber Music Society, players from all areas of the University come together on the 18th June to perform Chamber Music for wind quintet, string quartet and other small ensembles from a variety of composers. This free concert will be held at 1.10pm in the Barber Institute of Fine Arts.

The smooth sounds of the Jazz Orchestra, with special guests Fat Chops Big Band, will have you clicking your fingers and tapping your toes. Come and dance the night away on the 18th June, at 7.30pm in the Deb Hall (in the Guild of Students at the University), to a selection of Jazz, Swing and Big Band classics.

Tickets £5 adults, £4 concessions and £2 students, available from the Barber Institute and on the door.

The festival ends with performances from the Chamber Orchestra and Choir, in the Barber Institute of Fine Arts on Friday 19th June at 1.10pm.  This year the Orchestra will perform the much loved Peter and the Wolf by Sergei Prokofiev, narrated by Professor Colin Timms.

Also part of this year’s summer festival is the festival opera. This year, students from the university will be performing Johann Strauss’ Die Fledermaus.

Baron von Eisenstein is a man fond of a party, so when his friend and partner in crime, Dr Faulke, suggests he postpones his eight day jail term for just one more night in favour of Prince Orlofskys ball, Eisenstein cannot resist. Little does he know that Faulke is planning revenge for a previous drunken misadventure, when he was abandoned by Eisenstein to wander the streets of Vienna dressed as a bat. Eisenstein’s wife, her maid and even the chief of police all end up tangled in Falkes deception, and a champagne fuelled night of mischief and mistaken identities ensues.

Die Fledermaus will be performed in The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Edgbaston Park Road, on Saturday 13th June at 7:00pm, Sunday 14th June at 2:00pm, and Monday 15th June at 7:00pm.