Hear Britain's top young musicians perform at Durham's Society of Recorder Players national festival

Some of Britain's best young musicians will be performing when the Society of Recorder Players national festival comes to Durham in April.

Finalists from the BBC's Young Musician of the Year concert will be on stage at Durham's Ushaw Historic House and Chapels for the two day event, on Saturday and Sunday April 13-14.

BBC Young Musician of the Year finalists Charlotte Barbour-Condini from 2012 and Sophie Westbrooke from 2014 will be performing, as well as BBC Young Musician Jazz Award 2016 finalist Tom Ridout.

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They will be joined by 250 musicians playing everything on the recorder from medieval and folk music through to jazz, contemporary music and world premiere performances.

Far from being the basic school instrument that many people remember from their childhood, in the right hands the recorder is able to produce a wide variety of sounds and fantastic music. The recorder also comes in a greater variety of sizes than most people will have seen, from the tiny sopranino down to the rich tones of the contra and great bass instruments.

Mary Tyers, chair of the Society of Recorder Players Festival committee said: "We're very excited about the possibilities that Ushaw offers us to present the recorder music in general, and the work of the SRP, to a wider audience. As visitors enjoy the architectural treasures of Ushaw, they'll be accompanied by musical delights of our fringe visitors and the festival participants."

The Durham event of the Society of Recorder Players national festival includes:

Society of Recorder Players Fringe Festival

Charlotte Barbour-Condini, Sophie Westbrooke and Tom Ridout - who brings a programme built around jazz improvisations on one of Handel's recorder sonatas - will be playing a series of free pop-up performances throughout the Ushaw Historic House and Chapels over the weekend.

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Lunchtime concerts

There will be an informal lunchtime concert for families by Lux Musicae London at 11am on Sunday April 14. The group performs on a mixture of early instruments: recorders, lutes, harp and viola da gamba, recreating 16th and 17th Century London.

Composers competition

Visitors will be able to watch the exciting young recorder quartet BLOCK4 performing a shortlist of nine new works, with the Society of Recorder Players president, composer Jonathan Dove, adjudicating. The following day, BLOCK4 will give an additional concert which will include the winning compositions in a programme called 'Stargazing - music across the centuries, inspired by the heavens'.

Recorder workshops

As part of the Society of Recorder Players' commitment to encouraging young people to play the recorder, the festival is introducing a Youth Strand, with a session led by experienced teachers and the award-winning recorder trio Parandrus (Charlotte Barbour-Condini, Sophie Westbrooke and Daniel Swami).

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Yvonne Wilkinson, marketing and events officer at Ushaw said: "We're delighted to be welcoming the SRP Festival in April as part of an increasing range of conference and events held at Ushaw.

"This is a great opportunity to introduce the hidden gem of Ushaw to people from around the country, and to showcase the recorder world to our local visitors."

Society of Recorder Players national festival in Durham is at Ushaw Historic House and Chapels on Saturday and Sunday April 13-14. Normal Ushaw admission charges apply. See www.ushaw.org for opening times and prices and for tickets to the Lux Musicae concert. For more information about the Society of Recorder Players national festival, head to their website.