THE Chandos Symp-hony Orchestra is looking forward to welcoming back a top soprano at a concert next week.

Mary Plazas last performed with the orchestra in 1998 as Mimi in La Boheme and will return to Malvern for a concert on May 16.

Mary studied at the Royal Northern College of Music, is a principal of the English National Opera and has performed with numerous leading orchestras.

She will sing solo in Strauss' Four Last Songs. Described as a 'farewell to existence', the composer wrote the songs specifically for legendary soprano Kirsten Flagstad.

The orchestra will also play Sibelius' Tapiola, a tone-poem first performed in 1926, and Symphony No 2.

Chairman Richard Brooks said: "We've performed the Strauss and Sibelius symphony before but really all of us are wondering what Tapiola is going to be like, as it's not familiar to the vast majority of us.

"In most of our programmes we do try to give us, as musicians, the opportunity to show off works that we all really enjoy playing.

"We also try to introduce audiences to music which they might not have had the opportunity to hear before."

The concert will be conducted by Michael Lloyd, whose connections with the Chandos date back to 1988, when he was appointed its music director and principal conductor.

The orchestra was founded as Chandos Sinfonia in 1978. At the outset, it had only 30 members, but over the last decade it has gradually evolved into a full symphony orchestra and is now one of the country's leading amateur orchestras.

It begins at 7.45pm and tickets, which cost from £7 to £13, are available by calling Malvern Theatres box office on 01684 892277.