RICHARD Hickox had his shoulder to the wheel which kept the St Endellion Music Festival going and built it up to the international status it deserves today. The group of people that he got together and encouraged are determined that the wheel will continue to turn into the future. There are great ideas ahead which I will talk about at some later date.

Suffice to say, this year's Easter festival is ready to roll during April, details of which you can get by ringing 0787 0548187 or e-mailing sarah.priday@endellion.org.uk

Here is an outline of what is in store for you:

Sunday, April 5 – chamber concert, 7.30pm, Bach, Haydn and Schubert; Tuesday, 7 – chamber concert, 7.30pm, Bach, Debussy and Beethoven; Wednesday, 8 – orchestral and choral concert, 7.30pm, Vaughan Williams, Tallis, Howells, Bach and Strauss. Thursday, 9, 10pm, Quartet for the End of Time (Messiaen); Good Friday, 10th, 9.15am to 1pm, open rehearsal; 4.30pm, performance of Bach's St Matthew Passion; Saturday, 11, 6.30pm, St Matthew Passion – In Memoriam Richard Hickox 1948-2008. Easter Sunday, 12, 7.30pm, concert – Parry, Bruch and Brahms. The conductor will be James Burton.

Booking early is advisable. For your diary, this year's 51st summer festival takes place between July 28 and August 7.

International Musicians Seminar

As a very good example of what can happen after the death of the founder and leader, the International Musicians Seminar is as strong now as it ever was; most would say even stronger. The memory of Sandor Vegh is ever present, but the music continues.

This year's series of spring concerts takes place between Saturday, April 4 and Friday, April 18. As with St Endellion, bookings for the IMS need to be made fairly soon. Masterclasses are becoming ever more popular, so it is advisable to check on these before you go. For information ring 0207720 9020 upto March 29; 01736 731688 after.

Here is a brief layout of the concerts.

Saturday, April 4 at St John's Church, Lemon Street, Truro (Maestri concert); Monday, 6 in St John's Hall, Penzance; Tuesday, 7 in St Buryan Church; Saturday, 11 in Marazion Community Centre (Maestri concert), Friday, 17 in St Gluvias Church, Penryn and Saturday, 18 in St Pol de Leon Church, Paul. All concerts start at 7.30pm.

It is clearly better to book, but sometimes tickets are available on the door.

Choral Singing Workshop 2009

This is a last-minute reminder of a day choral workshop, an annual event now well-established by Paul Ellis and the East Cornwall Bach Choir. It takes place this Saturday, March 7, in Liskeard Methodist Church.

If by any chance there are any singing places left, here are a few brief details. The work to be rehearsed is Mendelssohn's Elijah, the course runs from 11am to 5.30pm with a lunch break and there is a performance in the evening, starting at 7pm. This costs £12 with £l for the hiring of the music. To find out if there is room, ring 01752 846102.

An audience is welcome to the evening performance. Judging by past years, you will be agreeably surprised at what has been achieved in a day of intense rehearsal. Just turn up and pay £5 at the door.

Truro Three Arts

For the last of the 2008-9 winter series of concerts, the high standard is more than adequately kept up by the return of the Schubert Ensemble, an international group internationally acclaimed.

It is now 25 years old and in that time has established itself as one of the world's leading exponents of chamber music for piano and strings. Their energy and musical passion is all too clear to those who hear them.

They are William Howard (piano), Simon Blendis (violin), Douglas Patterson (viola), Jane Salmon (cello) and Peter Buckoke (double bass).

The music they will play is by Faure (Piano quartet No 1 in C minor Op 15), David Knotts (On Such a Night as This) and Schubert (Piano quartet in A 9667 The Trout).

The concert takes place on Friday, March 13 in the Mylor Theatre of Truro College, 7.30pm start. Tickets are (or may be) available at the door, or can be booked in advance by ringing 01872 274609.

G & S Brought to Life

Stage-a-Chord, that innovative operatic society in Wadebridge, has come up with something connected with the Gilbert and Sullivan partnership, not so much at the works they created but at the two men and their working relationship; at the character and personality of both, as well as something of the remarkable coincidences and happy accidents that led to the creation of their operas, still held in high regard and affection by much of the English-speaking world.

Betty Balmford has written the story which runs from 1871 to 1896, which will be set as though the audience is looking in on the original theatrical company in rehearsal. Dramatic and musical interludes from the operas like The Pirates of Penzance, The Mikado and The Gondoliers will portray anecdotes relating to the operas and their creation. The whole will be linked by the narrator, Bridget, Richard D'Oyle-Cartes' grand daughter, reading from her diaries.

All parts will be played by members of Stage-a-Chord ready for the two performances in Wadebridge Town Hall on Friday and Saturday, May 1 and 2.

This looks like an exciting project for both performers and audience. There are spaces for actors and singers, especially young people.

There will no doubt be empty seats waiting for an audience. I will give you more details next month. If however you cannot wait that long, ring John Holmes on 01208 814142 or try yianniho@freeuk.com

Roseland Music

Now a well-established organisation, the Roseland Music Society shows what a wealth and variety of top-class music it can present at its monthly concerts in Portscatho Memorial Hall. Not only this, but through its Roseland Youth Music branch it manages to persuade many of the performers to go out to local schools and open the eyes of the pupils to a quality of music they would not normally experience.

March is no exception to the quality of music we can expect. Paul Drayton came down to Cornwall many years ago, after a lifetime of professional teaching and performing. Whether or not he was hoping to retire here I don't know. What I do know is that, to Cornwall's great advantage, he hasn't been allowed to. As a conductor, accompanist, composer, arranger and teacher, his feet have hardly touched the ground. As a jazz musician, pianist and arranger he has few parallels. On Saturday, March 21 he will introduce us to the story of the Gershwins in an unmissable evening called Fascinating Rhythm.

Tickets cost £9, possibly available at the door, most likely by ringing Breenda Damp on 01872 580889; or if you're in the village, calling at the post office or Today's Stores.

Cathedral Music

The mighty Willis cathedral organ has just had some updating work done on the console. They assure me not a pipe has been added or removed, but life has been made more interesting, possibly easier, for the player. To find out what this is all about, on Friday, March 20 at 7pm there will be an Organ Extravaganza, where both Christopher Gray and Luke Bond, director and deputy director of music, will put the instrument through its paces, include some rarely-heard organ duets; and with the aid of a large screen, give the audience the chance to see the newly-refurbished keyboards. Tickets at the door.

This event will also launch the 2009 organ recital series, the second recital being on Friday, March 27 at 1.10pm, given by John Hosking of St Asaph's Cathedral. The lunch time recitals are all free.

On Saturday, March 28, The Three Spires Singers and Orchestra present a very English programme; Elgar's The Music Makers, Parry's Blest Pair of Sirens and I Was Glad and Vaughan Williams' Flos Campi. Soloists are Yvonne Howard (mezzo soprano) and Tim Boulton (viola). The conductor is Christopher Gray.

Tickets for this concert can be bought at the Hall for Cornwall box office, 01872 262466.

To mark the beginning of Holy Week, Bach's St John Passion will be performed by the St Mary's Singers and Orchestra. The orchestra leader is Malcolm Latcher, Evangelist is sung by David Webb, conductor is Luke Bond. It will be on Palm Sunday, April 5, starting at 6pm. Admission is free, with a collection at the end of the service.

The Hall in March

The Dance Touring Partnership, involving Australia Dance Theatre and DVS Physical Theatre comes to the hall on Friday. Five extraordinary dancers play at shifting relationships of desire and power, of hope and despair – a rich combination of skilled athletic dance where dancers shift effortlessly from tender lyrical movements to sheer explosion.

The English Touring Opera returns to the Hall by popular request to present Mozart's The Magic Flute from March 23 to 25 and Janacek's Katya Kabanova on March 24. Two compelling stories, one brilliant company.

Looking to the beginning of April (2 to 4), our own brilliant Duchy Ballet dances to the music of Delibes in the enchanting and unusual love story Coppelia.

There is of course much more, including Cinderella on Ice, so get ringing for more details. The box office number is 01872 262466, or try www.hallforcornwall.co.uk

More March Concerts

For their first concert of 2009, Mevagissey Male Choir will be in St Cuby Church. Tregony on Saturday at 7.30pm.

Mount Hawke Methodist Church will be ringing to the sound of the Nankersey Male Choir on Sunday, March 15 at 7.30pm.

The Imerys Cornwall Male Choir, with musical director Barry Hawken will be joined by the Torpoint Lady Singers with musical director Sylvia Fraser in St Mary's Church, Church, Biscovey for a joint concert on Saturday, March 14 (7.30pm).

They will be alone for a concert in aid of the Cornwall Search and Rescue Team on Friday, March 27 (7.30pm) in The Wesley Hall, Falmouth Methodist Church, The Moor. Tickets at the door, £5. St Columba Celtic Male Voice Choir sing in Delabole Methodist Church on Sunday, March 15 (7.30pm); Tintagel Methodist Church is the venue for a gala concert by Tintagel Orpheus Male Voice Choir on Thursday, March 26 (7.30pm).