It has been said many times that 2012 is an amazing year for the UK. We have the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics and... the fifth Maldon Festival to celebrate!

It was inevitable, and quite correct, that those two great events should feature prominently in our programming for this year and so the first part of the festival has a somewhat regal theme in celebration of the sovereign's sixty years on the throne.

On June 2nd, St Mary's Choir, accompanied by Pegasus Baroque Orchestra (the same people who brought you the highly successful programme of Handel's Dixit dominus in last year's festival) will be performing Handel's Coronation Anthems. These include the famous Zadok the priest and Purcell's Come ye Sons of Art, a glorious cantata of praise in honour of Queen Mary II. The Jubilee theme continues on June 5th, when Alisdair Hogarth returns to perform an exciting programme to Beethoven's Variations on God Save the King.

For lovers of saxophones and other wind instruments, we have perennial locally-based favourites, Saxology plus a Manchester-based wind trio, Northern Winds, the leader of whom is local boy, Tom Evans. These two concerts will also showcase two of our favourite historic buildings; Purleigh Church and Maldon's Moot Hall.

Christopher Weston has become almost a festival fixture, receiving wild applause whenever he appears. This year he is once again performing a concerto (Chopin's second) with Gli Amati, a fabulous international quartet who will also be performing Elgar's String Quartet.

The International theme is highlighted by our welcoming singers from the Caine College of Arts, USA, who will not only be performing the American Songbook (a must for all those lovers of Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Stephen Sondheim and so many more), but will be featuring in our closing spectacular; a fully-staged production of the Pirates of Penzance on the Hythe Quay. This also features as part of Essex County Council's Sparks will Fly in Essex, part of the cultural olympiad.

All in all, we think this year's festival is the most ambitious and most exciting yet and is not to be missed.