In the early 1980s international concert pianist and renowned music teacher Renna Kellaway was looking for a location for a new music festival and summer school venture, an event which would bring together international artists and young musicians in a combination of training with performance.

"It seemed to me that there could be no better canvas on which to paint such an event as the Lake District, and Ambleside offered a wonderful teacher training college which provided all we needed for our residential teaching base," Renna tells me.

"But there's a lot of work involved in turning an idea into a reality and I remember walking down to our first ever concert in Ambleside Parish Church in 1985 wondering whether there would be an audience at all, and being thrilled at the response."

She says she finds it hard to believe that Lake District Summer Music has reached its 20th birthday so soon, with 43 events spread across most of Cumbria from Kirkby Lonsdale to Carlisle, Keswick to Ulverston: "It's been wonderful to see how audiences have grown and supported the growth of the event and the many new ventures introduced along the way."

From a Lakes event it has grown into one of the finest music festivals in the UK, attracting top names of the classical world. So much so, the National Youth Orchestra has chosen the prestigious LDSM festival as one of the events to unveil its newly-established sinfonietta. The Cheltenham Festival is one of the other two.

Events open on Saturday, July 31 (8pm) with LDSM favourite the Chilingirian Quartet performing at the exquisitely and sensitively restored Coronation Hall, at Ulverston, one of several Furness concerts staged at the Coro, including the festival finale with the NYO Sinfonietta (Saturday, August 14, 8pm).

The Coro concerts also include the Goldberg Ensemble on Wednesday, August 4, featuring Sir John Manduell's Diversions (a very British divertimento) in the programme plus leading horn player Richard Watkins (8pm) performing Mozart's Horn Concerto no 4.

Another popular festival visitor is young pianist Steven Osborne, playing works by Brahms, Liszt and Schubert's Sonata in B flat at Kendal Town Hall on Sunday, August 1 (8pm).

The day after (Monday, 2.30pm) at Ambleside's St Martin's College, Steven holds the first of five festival masterclasses celebrating the fifth year of LDSM's collaboration with Boots plc to train young musicians.

Steven also shares his passion for jazz and improvisation in the Late Night Series, again at St Martin's College (10.30pm).

Bromsgrove International Young Musicians Competition winner, violist Maya Rasooly, features in the new Rising Stars concerts on Tuesday, August 3 (11.30am at Ambleside Parish Church) accompanied by mezzo-soprano Wendy Dawn Thompson and another well-known Lakeland visitor, pianist Heejung Kim.

Meanwhile, Penrith Methodist Church gets in on the action hosting the charismatic Gould Piano Trio on August 3 (8pm) a firm favourite among piano trios on the international circuit.

The Brewery Arts Centre plays a bigger role this year, opening its Kendal doors to Did You Bring Any Mozart, starring Wyn Davies on piano.

An entertaining programme, which takes the audience through Figaro's complex marriage plans, featuring a duet from The Magic Flute and another musical delights.

Staged on Friday, August 6 (8pm) it's a change to the advertised Fast Forward Figaro, after soprano Linda Kitchen had to withdraw on doctor's orders.

Some fast footwork' by LDSM's Renna Kellaway helped to secure the services of well-known opera singers Linda Ormiston (soprano) and Donald Maxwell (baritone) to join the irrepressible Mr Davies.

Well-known conductor/musician Wyn is a regular visitor to the county, particularly popular with Lakeland Sinfonia Christmas concertgoers.

The Kendal art centre also stages a little bit of four-hand magic on the Steinway by pianists Heejung Kim and Esther Sofaer the same night (9.45pm) as well as showing The Cunning Little Vixen the BBC animation graced by the music of Janacek conducted by Kent Nagano, on Monday, August 2 (7pm). The show is preceded by an insight into how the film was made.

Chamber music and instrumental favourites drift across Windermere's Steamboat Museum on Saturday, August 7 (noon), when music lovers can sit and relax in a Victorian vessel with a glass wine and listen to young LDSM artists perform.

Another vibrant and uplifting event on the same day should be the teaming up of Lancaster singers and Manchester Camerata Ensemble in Viva Vivaldi at St Martin's Church, Bowness (5pm).

Finally, this year's concert to celebrate the life of the former LDSM president, the late great Yehudi Menuhin, is at Keswick's Theatre by the Lake on Sunday, August 8 (8pm), starring the Chillgirians and young talents of LDSM. The concert includes a massed performance of Beethoven's Quartet in F Minor.

For full festival details, contact the box office on 08456-442144.