Classical Preview: Young conductor presents an opera gala night

It was the conducting competition that launched the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic's charismatic Russian conductor, Vasily Petrenko, gave the BBC Philharmonic its great Italian conductor, Gianandrea Noseda, and now its British prize-winner, Justin Doyle, looks set to follow in their footsteps.

He is on stage next Thursday with the Hall Orchestra for the opening concert of this year's Northern Aldborough Festival in an Opera Gala Night with two stars of the English National Opera – the soprano, Mary Plazas, and tenor John Hudson.

Now 34, the Lancaster-born conductor knows that he has reached the age when apprenticeships have been long served and now is the time to move onto the international stage.

The hugely prestigious Cadaques Orchestra Competition, with its illustrious jury, is one of those events that has the happy knack of selecting the big-named conductors of the future, often attracting almost 200 young hopefuls.

Doyle is presently working with Glyndebourne Opera, He was for some years the hugely successful artistic director of the Ryedale Festival and still retains his role as conductor of the Manchester Chamber Choir.

His programme in the Radcliffe Room, at Rudding Park, features some lesser-heard arias and duets by Massenet, Donizetti and Mascagni, together with "pop" classics from La Traviata and La Boheme. He will include operatic orchestral excerpts, the evening structured with an extended interval for a picnic meal or "Opera Dinner".

Northern Aldborough Festival, Jun 17-26, 01423 322586, www.aldborough

festival.com