LAKE District Summer Music has something of a tradition of highlighting the stars of the next generation, and the 2004 Festival is no exception, with a new series bringing international prizewinners to Cumbria.

In the first of the four Rising Stars concerts, music lovers can hear for themselves why the judges of the 2003 Bromsgrove International Young Musician's Competition awarded first prize to the young Israeli viola player Maya Rasooly.

In her concert on Tuesday, August 3 (11.30am) at Ambleside Parish Church, Maya plays Schubert's Arpeggione Sonata and Monodialogue, a fantasy for solo viola by the Israeli composer Wiesenberg, a work written and dedicated to her teacher, Tabea Zimmerman.

Maya teams up with New Zealand-born mezzo-soprano Wendy Dawn Thompson, winner of the 2003 Kathleen Ferrier competition and the Royal Over-Seas League Singers competition.

With Maya and pianist Heejung Kim, Wendy will perform two songs by Brahms that Kathleen Ferrier herself used to sing.

Wendy performs again at Ambleside Parish Church the next day (August 4, 3.30pm) when she will sing songs by Haydn, Schubert, Bolcom and Richard Strauss, accompanied by Lindy Tennent-Brown on piano.

For further details of the complete, 43-event LDSM festival, contact 08456-442144.