The 125th anniversary of the Petersfield Musical Festival will be celebrated in style at Petersfield Festival Hall from March 13 to 21.

This year’s festival kicks off with From Gershwin to Gandalf on March 13 at 7.30pm.

Award-winning wind band St Cat's Ensemble will team up with pianist and broadcaster Keelan Carew to perform Symphony No. 1, Lord of the Rings by Johan de Meij and Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin.

Keelan Carew and musical director Adam Broughton will give a pre-concert talk at 6.30pm.

Froxfield Choir and the Brass Breakout Jazz Orchestra will perform music by Duke Ellington in Duke Ellington's Sacred Concert on March 14 at 7.30pm.

It will feature vocalist and tap dancer Gloria Miller. The conductor will be Michel Servant, and the Brass Breakout Jazz Orchestra will be under musical director Janek Zawada.

There will be family fun on a flying theme in Family Concert: Sky High! on March 15 at 3pm.

Music from flying films such as Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and The Dam Busters will be played by the Basingstoke Symphony Orchestra under conductor Stephen Scotchmer.

Young performers will star in two Badgers, Hedgehogs and Heroes youth concerts on March 16 and 18 at 7pm.

The Combined Schools Choir will sing songs from Haydn to Hercules, with a celebration of David Attenborough’s centenary and the 800th anniversary of St Francis of Assisi.

The winning pieces from the Festival of Young Composers will also be performed.

The Combined Schools Wind and Jazz bands will be complemented by the Petersfield Area Schools’ String Orchestra.

Always popular, these concerts feature a varied programme performed by singers and instrumentalists from local schools and youth music organisations. They will also be shown free on a large screen in the Rose Room of the Festival Hall.

On March 19 at 7.30pm Petersfield Orchestra will perform a programme that moves from Bernstein’s lively satire to Gershwin’s jazzy energy and Rachmaninov’s sweeping drama.

They will play Bernstein’s Candide Overture, Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F and Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances under the leadership of Helen Purchase. Karen Kingsley will play the piano and Robin Browning will be the conductor.

In Petersfield Musical Festival - A History on March 20 from 10.30am to 11.45am, past chairman Philip Young will talk about the origins of the festival and its 125-year history. This free event will be held in the Rose Room.

Red Priest will perform Truly Madly Baroque on March 20 at 7.30pm.

This is a series of lively and expressive arrangements of Baroque works by Vivaldi, Bach, Handel, Telemann, Corelli and others.

The group are Piers Adams (recorders), Julia Bishop (violin), Angela East (cello) and David Wright (harpsichord).

The Verdi Requiem - a choral masterpiece with thunderous choruses, expressive solos and vivid orchestration - will be performed on March 21 at 7.30pm.

It will feature the Festival Chorus, comprising Fernhurst, Petersfield and Rogate choral societies, soprano Madeleine Perring, mezzo-soprano Georgina Cohu, tenor Harry Jacques, bass Redmond Sanders, Southern Pro Musica and conductor Paul Spicer.