CHARLES HUTCHINSON introduces the festival line-up at Harrogate.

Youssou N'Dour and Van Morrison lead the line-up for 40th Harrogate International Festival.

The festival opens today with director William Culver-Dodds assembling old and new faces in classical music, world music and jazz. The Afro Cuban All Stars, Gwyneth Herbert, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Pinchas Zukerman typify this year's selection.

The festival is particularly pleased to have secured violinist Pinchas Zukerman for the 40th Festival Gala Concert next Friday at 8pm at Harrogate Theatre. Zukerman played in Harrogate in the early days of the festival and now returns with the Zukerman Chamber Players to perform works by Beethoven, Mozart and Dvorak.

Fresh from the WOMAD Festival, Youssou N'Dour and the Super Etoile de Dakar play their only other UK date at Harrogate International Centre on July 31. Recognised as Africa's most popular musician on a worldwide scale, N'Dour mixes traditional Senegalese m'balax dance rhythms with diverse influences ranging from Cuban samba to hip hop, jazz and soul.

Irishman Van Morrison will be appearing at the International Centre on July 30 at 8pm as part of his European summer tour of jazz festivals to promote Magic Time, his 36th album. This is his only appearance in the north of England, and not surprisingly it is a sell-out.

Juan De Marcos's Afro Cuban All-Stars swap Havana for Harrogate, making a rare British appearance at Harrogate International Centre on Thursday at 8pm. De Marcos was the inspiration behind the legendary Buena Vista Social Club and he has put together a 15-piece big band, drawn from Cuba's crop of new musicians, to play traditional guantanamera, son and salsa street songs.

A new face to world music, singer-songwriter Cibelle Cavalli makes her Harrogate debut at Harrogate Theatre on August 4 at 8pm. This new voice of Brazil's Sao Paolo combines bossa nova and samba sounds of the Fifties and Sixties with modern electronics, and she was nominated for best newcomer in the 2004 BBC Radio 3 Awards for World Music.

This year's classical celebrity recitals at Harrogate Theatre present guitarist John Williams on Tuesday; Russian pianist Boris Berezovsky, playing Ravel, Stravinsky and Rachmaninov pieces, on Wednesday; and percussionist Evelyn Glennie on August 1, all at 8pm.

Jazz Cabaret nights introduce Gwyneth Herbert to the Harrogate International Festival at the Cedar Court Hotel on Monday at 8.30pm (see feature), then welcome Claire Martin and Richard Rodney Bennett to the same hotel on August 2 at 8.30pm to perform works by Poter and Berlin, Joni Mitchell and Elvis Costello.

The 40th Festival Finale will be the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra's 8pm programme of dramatic Russian pieces on August 5 at Harrogate International Centre. Mikhail Rudy is the soloist for Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No 2, and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No 4 signs off the festival in stirring fashion.

For tickets, ring 01423 537230 or send an email to:

box@harrogate-festival.org.uk

Updated: 08:56 Friday, July 22, 2005