A PERFORMANCE of Handel's Water Music played by Skipton Town Hall's new orchestra in residence will mark the building's reopening.

Nicholas Daniel, leading oboist and conductor, will also appear with Skipton Camerata on May 1, at the start of the town's annual Waterway Festival.

He will play the Oboe Concerto by Richard Strauss and the concert will close with the first of Mozart's final trilogy of symphonies.

Refurbishment of the hall will still be ongoing at the time and will be fully reopened later in the month.

“What's great about being resident at the town hall is that it places the orchestra at the heart of Skipton," said Ben Crick, Camerata founder and artistic director.

“A town the size of Skipton having their own fully professional ensemble is almost unique in the country so I feel it's really important to make it as visible as possible."

He added: “I'm so excited that the oboist Nicholas Daniel is joining us for this concert. He is the country's leading oboe player, a regular soloist in the proms at the Royal Albert Hall, and he's playing Strauss' glorious oboe concerto."

However, the Camerata has a prior date in the town when it performs at Christ Church next Saturday, April 25.

On that occasion, it will join forces with The University of Leeds, its chamber choir the Clothworker’s Consort and the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society to give a new lease of life to Phillip Hayes’s choral work, The Judgement of Hermes.

Written in 1783, the original manuscript has just been rediscovered and this will be first performance of the work for over 230 years.

Tickets for both concerts are available from skiptoncamerata.com or call 0333 666 3366.