SWALEDALE Festival opens with a concert by the celebrated jazz singer Christine Tobin in St Andrew's Church, Grinton, on May 28.

For her first Swaledale Festival appearance she has chosen songs made famous by her musical heroine, Elis Regina, regarded as Brazil’s greatest living singer before her untimely death in 1982 at the age of 36.

Malcolm Creese, artistic director of Swaledale Festival, said: "Christine's richly sensual voice is ideally suited to songs written by Brazilian masters such as Milton Nascimento and Antonio Carlos Jobim, and St Andrew's has an acoustic perfectly suited to this kind of intimate, drum-less music.”

Tobin appears with her regular backing musicians, Phil Robson on guitar, Kate Shortt on cello and Mark Lewandowski on double bass.

Another link to Brazil occurs on May 31 with the AKA Trio comprising Italian guitarist Antonio Forcione, Senegalese kora maestro and vocalist Seckou Keita and Brazilian percussionist Adriano Adewale to perform world music at Grinton church.

On June 4, the folk group Lau gives a special concert at Tennants Garden Rooms, Leyburn, as part of a UK-wide tour. Steeped in English and Scottish folk music, the performers enjoy experimentation and their beautifully crafted music has won several major awards. Later this summer they have appearances in Ireland and Russia.

Violin player Adam Summerhayes has previously performed at Swaledale Festival as a member of the London Concertante, Zum, 21st Century Baroque, Lightning Thieves, Swaledale Festival Players and the Summerhayes Horn Trio.

Currently on tour with the baroque group Red Priest, this year he will assemble his own small orchestra for The Magic of Vienna on June 9 at Grinton church. His virtuosic violin playing will feature pieces from The Blue Danube, Tchaikovsky’s Waltz of the Flowers from The Nutcracker and gems by Franz Lehar and Fritz Kreisler.

On June 7, Summerhayes performs with his duo, Deadmen’s Folk, alongside accordionist Murray Grainger. Their programme consists of folk melodies from the 15th and 16th centuries.

The next afternoon he leads the string section in Niamh Ni Charra’s musical commemoration of the evacuation of the Irish Blasket Isles in The Island Lullaby at Influence Church, Richmond, and on June 10 he co-leads 21st Century Baroque featuring the young recorder virtuoso Charlotte Barbour-Condini.

As well as being a musician, Summerhayes is an award-winning photographer and will show local views and landmarks in an exhibition, Under Northern Skies, at the Orchard Gallery in Hudson House, Reeth. The gallery is open during office hours from May 28 to June 11. His photographs are available for sale and entry is free.

For tickets and full information on Swaledale Festival events, visit swalefest.org.