FROM spiky-haired violin virtuosos to scandalous film scores, and the thrills of polar exploration to the horrors of war, Cheltenham's annual Music Festival promises a feast.

From July 4-15, it welcomes the likes of Nigel Kennedy, Steven Isserlis and Sarah Connolly.

The Queen's Diamond Jubilee is to be marked with a Royal Musical Treasures Concert featuring music by Walton, Parry, Handel and Elgar.

Stirring performances can be expected from the Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum, Cheltenham Bach Choir and award-winning Flowers Band.

The 150th anniversary of Debussy's death is another festival highlight. His final years coincided with the First World War and the music of this era constitutes a major theme this year. Violinist Katherine Gowers has devised a series of recitals of works by Debussy and his contemporaries, and broadcaster Julia Somerville will read a news bulletin for each.

It's 100 years since Captain Scott's fateful expedition to the South Pole, so it is fitting that exploration should also be another festival theme.

Musical explorations take us to Algeria and India with Holst's Beni Mora Suite and his opera Savitri, and to Bolivia with Florilegium.

Holst isn't the only local link. Ian Burnside's play, A Soldier and a Maker, tells the life of Gloucestershire composer Ivor Gurney.

Southbank Sinfonia will play Delius' incidental music to Hassan, a play by Cheltenham poet James Elroy Flecker, whose father was the first head of Dean Close School.

The young are well catered for. The popular Bandwagon is set to roll again with flash-mobs of musicians popping up in different schools.

Liz Lane is offering workshops on traditional African music and Rachel Bowen is leading a Ready, Steady, Sing workout while the free Midsummer Fiesta takes place in Montpellier Gardens on July 7.

New music has always been a feature at Cheltenham, so the Nash Ensemble present the world premiere of Alexander Goehr's Horn Concerto and the BBC Singers will give five premieres.

There will be lectures, and films on Delius and the Battle of Ancre with piano accompaniment, as well as a showing of Salomé, a 1923 silent film that scandalised America.

The final three-part concert looks forward to the Olympics. Former festival director Martyn Brabbins conducts the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in music inspired by London, including Elgar's Cockaigne and Ireland's A London Overture and ending with Vaughan Williams' London Symphony.

Booking opens next month. Visit www.cheltenhamfestivals.com.

Roger Jones