THE 2018 season of Wensleydale concerts launches on Sunday at Carperby Village Institute.

This is the first afternoon concert in the Wensleydale Concert Series, with tea and cakes, and Eboracum Baroque, a group of specialist musicians playing baroque instruments.

They will perform music for harpsichord, recorder, natural trumpet, baroque cello and voice including arias from Handel's Messiah and extracts from the Water Music, plus a recorder concerto by Vivaldi, Purcell's Trumpet Sonata and more. The concert starts at 3pm.

The series became a registered charity in 2017 and this year will welcome three international soloists.

Pianist Yasmin Rowe from Melbourne, Australia, performs in April, followed by the internationally renowned Russian-American cellist, Tanya Anisimova, from Washington DC in May.

She will give concerts in association with Wensleydale Concert Series at St Andrew's Church, Aysgarth, as well as at Ushaw College, Durham and St James, Piccadilly, in London.

While in North Yorkshire she will host a cello workshop in Wensleydale and work with amateur musicians with the Cobweb Orchestra in a study day on Schumann's Concerto.

June brings the Swedish Treitler String Quartet to perform in Aysgarth. Other monthly concerts feature Peter Cigleris (clarinet), Martyn Jackson (violin), the New World String Trio and the season closes at the end of September with a chamber concert including pianist Daniel Grimwood, violinist Fenella Humphreys, flautist Michael Cave and cellist Carol Haynes.

For details and tickets visit wensleydaleconcertseries.co.uk.