COMPOSER Will Todd will lead this year's popular Big Sing Day during Swaledale Festival.

His works have been sung at events such as the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations and President Obama’s inauguration and are becoming increasingly popular with singers and audiences as they become better known.

Mass in Blue, his best-known work, has been chosen for the Big Sing Day at Richmond School on June 4 and festival organisers hope youth and school choirs will take part. No prior rehearsal or preparation is required. The day is also open to anyone who enjoys singing, whether as a choir member or not.

Choral and solo singing is an important element of Swaledale Festival and artistic director Malcolm Creese has again booked some exceptional talent.

Stile Antico, the first of two visiting choirs, is one of the finest in the world specialising in early music.

The name translates as "in the old style", a phrase which came to be regarded as meaning the ideal of musical purity. The members sing unaccompanied and without a conductor.

The ensemble's festival programme marks the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death and includes music from the Tudor period and modern settings of Shakespeare poems composed especially for the choir by Nico Muhly and Huw Watkins. Stile Antico performs at St Mary's Church, Richmond, on June 1.

The second visiting choir is Durham-based ensemble Northern Spirit. Winners of the BBC’s coveted Adult Choir of the Year award in 2014, their concert is in East Witton on June 11. The programme covers a wide range of composers and styles.

Festival resident choir, the Swale Singers, performs on the opening night, May 28, in St Mary's Church, Arkengarthdale, in a concert of music by Handel and Rossini.

Richmondshire Choral Society provides a small group of singers to make up a choir for the festival service on June 5 in Reeth Methodist Chapel.

Solo singers are jazz vocalist Christine Tobin and top soprano, early music specialist Dame Emma Kirkby.

Also on the opening night, Christine Tobin appears at St Andrew's Church, Grinton, singing songs from Brazilian jazz singer Elis Regina, one of her great inspirations, who died in 1982 aged just 36.

Emma Kirkby appears with world-class early music specialists Susanna Pell (viol) and Jacob Heringman (lute) on May 30, also in Grinton, an a programme featuring poems by Shakespeare. Dame Emma gives a masterclass to five young local singers the following day in Reeth Congregational Church.

Full details of festival events can be seen at swalefest.org.