Touch Of Class with Liz Rowley

AS THE season of good will fast approaches so too do the Christmas concerts promising to put you well and truly in the mood.

Starting next week the City Music And Performing Arts Service bring its Voices At Christmas to Hanley's Victoria Hall on Thursday and Friday with music from the City Youth Choir, City Youth Training Choir, City Songbirds and their special guests. Both concerts start at 6.45pm. Call 0870 060 6649.

The lunchtime concert series at St Paul's Church, Newcastle, continues on Tuesday, December 9, with an afternoon of seasonal music for Advent and Christmas by organist Frederick Hewitt. It starts at 12.30pm and admission is free.

On Friday, December 12, the Daleian Singers will be performing a Christmas Musical Evening at Silverdale's Sacred Heart Church. It starts at 7pm and tickets, priced £6, are available at the door.

A little later in the month the Barbara Walton Singers will be presenting their popular Christmas By Candlelight concert at St Mark's Church, Shelton, on Thursday, December 18, at 8pm.

If you're unable to make this night the Singers will be presenting the same concert (minus the candlelight) at St James's Church, Longton, on Saturday, December 13, at 7.30pm. Tickets for both concerts are available at the door or by calling 01889 502377.

And on Friday, December 19, the Biddulph Male Voice choir take over the Victoria Hall for a concert of festive Christmas carols. It starts at 7.30pm. Call 01782 206000.

But before all this begins, well-known clarinetist Acker Bilk will be bringing his Paramount Jazz Band to Keele University's Westminster Theatre on Wednesday night as part of Keele Concert Society's 38th season. It starts at 7.30pm. Call 01782 717058.

And don't forget that Stoke-on-Trent Festival's orchestral season continues on Friday, December 12, with a concert at the Victoria Hall by the BBC Philharmonic and violinist So-Ock Kim. It starts at 8pm. Call 01782 206000.