INTERNATIONALLY renowned organist and accordion player Ben Saunders is putting on a series of concerts in Craven.

Beginning at St Michael's Church in Kirkby Malham on the evening of Saturday June 8, he will also be performing in Clapham and in Giggleswick.

His programme includes a wide repertoire of accordion music, with pieces by Couperin, Vierne, Grieg, Philip Glass, Zolotaryov, and O’Carolan. Organ pieces are Prelude and Fugue in A minor by JS Bach, The Carman's Whistle by William Byrd, Metamorphosis II by Philip Glass, and Toccata by Charles-Marie Widor.

Ben is responsible for the National Schools Singing Programme which provides curriculum music and world-class opportunities for after-school choirs for 23,000 children across 321 state schools each week.

He is also Director of Music for the Catholic Diocese of Leeds and was organ scholar of Downing College, Cambridge University and Assistant Director of Music at the cathedrals of St Giles’ Edinburgh, Blackburn, and Chester.

He was appointed a Director of Leeds College of Music in 2013 and Visiting Professor of Music at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana in 2015.

As an organist, Ben has performed for the late Queen Elizabeth, Princess Anne and US President Carter and has worked with conductor Carl Davis and jazz virtuoso Dick Hyman. He has given solo organ concerts in France, Italy, Holland, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Russia and the United States, and has published many recordings of organ and choral music.

Tickets for the concert at St Michael's Kirkby Malham at 7pm on June 8 are £10 on the door. Ben will be at St James’s Church, Clapham, at 7pm on Saturday, June 15, and at St Alkelda’s, Giggleswick on Friday June 21 at 7.30pm.

There will be refreshments after the concerts, with donations to church funds.