Life

Derry music festival

SOME of the world's top classical musicians will be bringing their music to Derry next week as the Walled City Music Festival returns for its seventh year. Running from June 4-7, the festival opens with a piano recital by leading English pianists Kathryn Stott and Martin Roscoe performing Mozart, Rachmaninov, Debussy and Gershwin. Highlights include the virtuoso French harpist Sylvain Blassel and the the visit of Anne Akiko Meyers, one of the world's leading concert violinists, whose instruments include the 1690s Molitor Stradivarius, famously rediscovered under a bed in Derry in 1988. Local talent will also take to the stage with the University of Ulster's final-year music students performing on June 5 alongside guest artists. A late-evening concert on June 6 will feature Schubert's sublime String Quintet performed by the young chamber ensemble Quercus, founded and directed by Derry cellist Kim Vaughan. n Walledcitymusic.com.