The Savonlinna Opera Festival began in 1912 thanks to the efforts of Finnish soprano Aino Ackte who saw that the romantic setting of Olavinlinna Castle on Lake Saimaa would be a perfect stage for opera.

4 nights price from £3559 per person

Leipzig

Organist Oliver Condy, former editor of BBC Music Magazine, leads this tour, retracing the life and career of Johann Sebastian Bach through the historic towns and cities of Thuringia and Saxony.

7 nights price from £3987 per person

The North Norfolk Music Festival is firmly established as one of the country’s leading chamber music festivals. It’s twenty years since Barry Cheeseman and Simon Rowland-Jones, both well known to Kirker clients, held the first concert in the north Norfolk village of South Creake, five miles from the coast.

5 nights price from £1998 per person

Tenerife

Escape from the rigours of the British winter for a week of music-making in the subtropical Canary Islands. We return to Tenerife for our exclusive festival, staying at the splendid 5* Hotel Botanico surrounded by lush gardens in Puerto de la Cruz.

7 nights price from £3986 per person

Milan

La Scala, Milan is, for most opera lovers, the world’s most revered and important opera house. The theatre opened in 1778 with a performance of an opera by Salieri and since then many of the greatest Italian operas have received their first performance on its hallowed stage.

4 nights price from £2298 per person

Venice

La Fenice in Venice is one of the world’s most historic opera houses. Inaugurated in 1792 the opera house has, like its namesake the phoenix, been destroyed by fire and rebuilt, both in 1836 and 1996.

4 nights price from £2876 per person

Born in Hämeenlinna on 8 December 1865, Jean Sibelius went on to become a national hero. Instilling a Finnish nationalistic fervour through his music, Sibelius is credited as one of the driving forces behind the country winning its independence from Russia.

4 nights price from £2998 per person