Focused. That’s the word that sprang to mind while I was watching the Westmorland Orchestra rehearse.

It also struck me how much talent there was playing with nigh on 50 musicians glued to their scores.

Saturday, December 6 (7.30pm), is the first of the new season of Westmorland Orchestra concerts. And conductor Barry Sharkey in his own inimitable style is perched on his stool coaxing the best out of his ensemble.

Barry says the orchestra has made significant progress in the past four years. Confidence is high. So much so they will tackle whatever crotchets and quavers he puts in front of them - testament to both the skills of the players and Barry’s leadership.

Add to that the enjoyment factor and you’ve got a winning formula.

On the programme for the December concert is Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No 3. “Last time we played it was nine years ago and managed it. And since, we’ve performed more demanding works as a result,” Barry tells me as the ranks take a well-earned break from rehearsing and head for the refreshment table.

Stepping up to the Steinway for the Westmorland Hall concert as soloist is Faith Leadbetter who, to mark the death of the Russian composer 50 years ago, will perform the best known of Prokofiev’s five piano concertos.

Brought up in Cartmel, Faith was under the wing of highly respected music teacher Judith Poole and went on to Manchester’s Chetham’s School of Music at ten. She has since made a steady rise to become a sought after soloist.

Among her prize possessions is a Making Music Award for piano duet with her musical partner Richard Saxel and in July she gave a recital at Birmingham Symphony Hall.

Speaking from her home in Croydon, Faith is understandably excited about playing the Prokofiev piece again: “I played it with the Swiss National Orchestra two or three years ago and when I was discussing repertoire with Mr Sharkey we both agreed it would be good to play it again.

“It has an intense drive all through the piece which hardly lets up, especially for the piano.

“Its triumphant. You really get caught up in it and it’s one that leaves the audience smiling at the end”.

Born in 1891 in Sontsovka, in Ukraine, Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev is considered one of the greatest composers of the 20th Century. He was also an accomplished pianist and conductor. He attended the St Petersburg Conservatory from 1904 to 1914, winning the Anton Rubinstein prize for best student pianist when he graduated.

Rimsky-Korsakov, Lyadov and Tcherepnin were among his teachers.

He made his début as a pianist in 1908, quickly creating something of a sensation as an enfant terrible, unintelligible and ultra-modern – apparently an image he was happy to cultivate.

Like other great composers he mastered a wide range of musical genres, including symphonies, concerti, film music, operas, program pieces and ballets such as Romeo and Juliet. Commissioned for the Bolshoi and premiered in 1938, it only later became a staple of the Soviet repertory.

At the time, his works were considered both ultra modern and innovative.

Prokofiev travelled widely, spending many years in London and Paris, and toured the United States five times. He gained wide notoriety and his music was both reviled and acclaimed by the musical press of the time. He returned to his homeland permanently in 1936 (the same year he wrote the children’s piece Peter and the Wolf) and died in Moscow, on March 5, 1953, on the same day as Stalin.

As well as the sparking and colourful concerto, the Westmorland’s concert features the bustling overture to Smetana’s opera the Bartered Bride and Rachmaninov’s Symphony No 1, which was first performed in March 1897 and conducted by the composer Glazunov, who was allegedly drunk at the time.

The piece apparently received a dreadful reception and the 24-year-old Rachmaninov fled the hall needing three years of therapy before he could compose again.

With tongue in cheek, Barry assures me, he will be perfectly sober!

Tickets are available from the Kendal Leisure Centre box office on 01539-729702.