CLEVELAND Philharmonic Choir is planning for the future and will feature children in the concert Green and Pleasant Land on Saturday, July 2.

The new junior choir of primary school age children and its choir within a choir, consisting of younger members from teens to thirties, will both be involved.

The concert takes place at Stockton Baptist Tabernacle, at 7.30pm, with a programme of summer music about the natural world including folk songs and choral dances.

Conductor John Forsyth has been training the Cleveland Philharmonic junior choir for the past six months.

They will sing with the adult choir in Andrew Carter’s Benedicite, an inventive work where adult singers conjure up whales, ice and snow, thunder and lightning and the children sing of gentler things such as butterflies and moths and grannies and grandads.

The children will also sing a short work by themselves – Richard Rodney Bennett’s The Aviary.

The concert also marks the first public performance of the Choir within the Choir, a group of talented youth members who like to sing in a smaller group as well as in the main choir.

Tenor Andrew McAllister joins as soloist to sing lute songs and love songs accompanied by Forsyth on guitar, and the evening will end with a rousing rendition of Jerusalem from choir and audience.

Tickets cost £14, £12 concessions, £2 children and students, from Vivienne Flynn on 01642 821553 or online at clevelandphilharmonicchoir.com. They are also available at the Tabernacle bookshop or office and at the door.