MUSICIANS from the Birmingham Conservatoire will be performing in their fourth annual recital at Kidderminster Library on Friday, November 19.

Pianist, John Humphreys and the Nero String Quartet will play at the concert, which has been organised by the town's Classical Musical Society.

John, who is the assistant head of piano at Birmingham Conservatoire, studied at the Royal Academy of Music and in Vienna on an Austrian Government Scholarship.

His debut performance at the prestigious Wigmore Hall was in 1972 with Busoni's rarely heard Fantasia Contrappuntistica and since then he has played throughout the UK and abroad.

In 1998, he was awarded the ARAM from the Royal Academy of Music for his "distinguished service to music".

Next year, he will give a recital with Allan Schiller at Wigmore Hall to celebrate Mozart's 250th anniversary.

The Nero String Quartet was formed in 2001 at the Birmingham Conservatoire and consists of violinists, Stella Hartikainen and Erika Lindgren, viola player, Helen Lancaster and cellist, Emma Capp.

The musicians currently study with John Todd, former cellist of the Coull Quartet and David Angel, violinist with the Maggini Quartet.

They have performed piano quintets with Alan Schiller and John Humphreys and last year they performed in the String Quartet Festival at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, representing the Birmingham Conservatoire.

The performers will play Brahms' String Quartet in A Minor, opus 51, Mozart's Piano Quartet in G Minor K 478 and Elgar's Piano Quintet in A Minor, opus 84.

Classical Music Society vice-chairman, Von Stewart, said: "This is the second time that John Humphreys has appeared with us so it is a great honour to welcome him back. They are giving us the rare chance to hear some works that I have never heard played in Kidderminster and I am particularly looking forward to the Elgar."

Tickets for the recital, which starts at 7.30pm, are available from Kidderminster Library and by calling 01562 755990.