O'Neill will be star (From Free Press Series)

O'Neill will be star

Welsh tenor Dennis O'Neill will be the star attraction at the first concert in this year's Seventh Annual Wyastone Summer Series, to be held on Friday May 26.

The Wyastone Series is one of the UK's premier international classical music festivals with this year's programme featuring classical, jazz, big band and baroque styles.

As well as Dennis O'Neill, organisers promise the only UK appearance by Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt in 2006.

Promoter Adrian Farmer, trustee of the Nimbus Foundation, said: "Dennis O'Neill is one of the world's greatest tenors, now at the peak of his performing career. "This evening promises to be a thrilling opening to the series and it will be a rare treat to hear this magnificent voice in the intimacy of recital."

The programme of operatic arias and songs includes works by Verdi, Puccini and Liszt. The event coincides with the release by Nimbus Records of Dennis O'Neill's new CD of Liszt songs.

And it has also been announced that the concert, the curtain-up in the 2006 programme, is being sponsored by the Wye Valley AONB as part of the celebrations to mark the 35th anniversary of the Wye Valley becoming a protected area.

Also in association with the AONB, a free exhibition of paintings organised by the Wye Valley Art Society will be open to concert audiences in the pavilion adjacent to the concert hall from May 26 to June 25.

It will then move on to the Nelson Museum in Monmouth from July 1 to September 3.