Happy birthday to them – the Letchworth Sinfonia will be marking a musical milestone with a 30th anniversary concert on Sunday evening.

The winter concert has a new location – St Christopher School in Barrington Road, Letchworth and a virtuoso visitor.

Madalina Rusu is the special guest, performing Beethoven’s ‘Emperor’ piano concerto No 5.

The programme also includes familiar music by Strauss, Bizet and Tchaikovsky, with Mark Galtrey conducting and Janet Hicks leading the Letchworth musicians as first violin.

Tickets are £10, with £8 concessions and students (18 and under) only paying £5. You can get yours from the Letchworth tourist information office in the town centre, or on the door subject to availability.

Tickets can also be reserved online at www.Letchworth-sinfonia.org.uk where you will also find further information about the orchestra and soloist. Doors open at 7pm and the concert starts at 7.30pm.

Following hot on the heels of the Letchworth date is the first performance of the new year for the Stevenage Symphony Orchestra, who will be in action on Saturday, January 24.

They will be performing at Knebworth’s St. Martin’s Church and their programme includes Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9, Mahler’s Ruckert Lieder songs and Smetana’s symphonic poem The Moldau.

Conductor Phillip Brunton said: “Smetana wrote The Moldau as part of a work that captured a scene of the rivers and mountains in his native Bohemia, occupied by Germany at the time.

“Dvorak’s final symphony, popularly known as the New World, is one of classical music’s best-loved works and Mahler’s songs based on the poems of Friedrich Ruckert is a truly beautiful piece.”

The concert starts at 7.30pm and tickets (£9, concessions £7) are available on the door, in advance from Gower House, London Road Knebworth or via www.stevenagesymphony.org.