START them Early. The National Centre for Early Music has forged a partnership with the City of York Council arts service to establish the York Early Music Ensemble, and the first fruits of this new educational project will ripen at the York Early Music Christmas Festival.

The new ensemble will play its inaugural concert of Medieval Music For Christmas next Saturday (13th) at 10.30am at the Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate, York.

The new initiative for children aged ten to 18 is run by Lisa Colton, lecturer in music history at Huddersfield University, and has been made possible partly by a £17,000 grant from Youth Music's Music Maker scheme to support advanced music education outside of normal school hours.

Delma Tomlin, the festival administrator and centre director, says: "This is the first real partnership between ourselves and the city council, setting up a joint performing arts service with half the funding from us, the other half from the council.

"Our part of the deal is to pay for the tuition, the council will pay for instruments, and initially the children will be playing modern rather than early music instruments. As they become more confident, they will switch to early ones but the first thing, as ever, is to spark an interest among children."

So far, the ensemble has been split into younger and older musicians.

"As they develop they can be split into wind players, string players, or whatever, and then the project can really take off as the musicians undertake more complex performances," says Delma.

In the meantime, the next step is to prepare the ensemble for its next concert engagement, at the York Early Music Festival in Summer 2004.

The seventh Christmas festival opens on Thursday evening with the York debut of the new Ensemble Plus Ultra in The Light Of Spain In Music, a programme of Renaissance music by Morales.

The biggest round of applause should go to the Playel Trio of St Petersburg at the National Centre next Saturday afternoon.

"They're coming over here from Russia just for this concert, and then they'll have to get up at four the next morning to fly back," says Delma. "I've had to sort out work permits and visas for them but it's worth it because we felt the 300th anniversary of St Petersburg was an event too important to ignore."

Further festival highlights are soprano Julia Gooding and lutenist Elizabeth Kenny's Heroines of 17th Century Italy, National Centre, next Friday; Yorkshire Bach Choir, Bach's Christmas Oratorio, St Michael-le-Belfrey, next Saturday; Crispian Steele-Perkins and Peter Seymour's guide to the trumpet, The Trumpet Shall Sound, National Centre, December 14; and Musicians of The Globe, with jester John Ballanger, presenting Shakespeare's Musick, Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, December 14.

In the words of the late Fred Pontin, book Early on 01904 658338.

Thursday

7:30pm: Ensemble Plus Ultra: The Light of Spain in Music, York Minster, Deangate, York.

Friday

1:00pm: University of Hull Early Music Ensemble: Christmas Music from Spain and the New World, St George's Church, Margaret Street, York.

7:30pm: Julia Gooding and Elizabeth Kenny: Heroines of 17th Century Italy, National Centre for Early Music, St Margaret's Church, York.

Saturday

10:30am-11:15am: York Early Music Ensemble & The City of York Performing Arts Centre Junior Choir: Medieval Music for Christmas, Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate, York.

2:30pm: Playel Trio of St Petersburg: Vienna and St Petersburg, National Centre for Early Music, St Margaret's Church, York.

7:00pm: Yorkshire Bach Choir and Yorkshire Baroque Soloists: Bach's Christmas Oratorio, St Michael-le-Belfrey Church, High Petergate, York.

Sunday

2:30pm: Crispian Steele-Perkins and Peter Seymour: The Trumpet Shall Sound, National Centre for Early Music, St Margaret's Church, York.

7:30pm: Musicians of the Globe: Shakespeare's Musick, Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York, York.

Updated: 16:07 Thursday, December 04, 2003