ACCLAIMED violinist Nicola Benedetti will be joining young players from across the Cotswolds for this year's Chipping Campden Music Festival youth academy orchestra course.

Nicola will be performing alongside secondary school-aged students and their postgraduate mentors, who will be taking part in the second youth orchestra summer school organised by the festival.

This project is a spin-off from the festival’s existing academy orchestra, an innovative training scheme which invites very advanced music students or recent graduates to perform alongside key professional musicians drawn from the UK’s national orchestras.

Among those who have taken part are Paul Lewis, Julian Lloyd-Webber, Imogen Cooper, Steven Isserlis and Alison Balsom.

The youth academy replicates the existing academy formula, with the academy trainee members becoming mentors to the next generation of young players.

In an intensive week of study they will work with conductor Thomas Hull and six other highly-experienced professional orchestral musicians.

The course culminates in two concerts in St James’ church, Chipping Campden with Nicola Benedetti as soloist. On Thursday, August 25, the programme will include Brahms's violin concerto in D major and Mendelssohn's Scottish symphony, and on Saturday, August 27, it will be Tchaikovsky's violin concerto in D major and Beethoven's Eroica symphony.

To buy tickets, which are selling very fast, email charlie@campdenmusicfestival.co.uk or call 01386 849018.