Garsington Opera has traditionally staged a series of chamber music concerts each spring at Garsington Manor, home of Rosalind and the late Leonard Ingrams, who started the opera tradition at the house in 1989. With the move of the opera company this year to its new home at Wormsley, the tradition was set to falter, but a new collaboration between the Ingrams family and the Oxford Chamber Music Festival means that classical music lovers will be able to enjoy the combined delights of concerts and picnics at Garsington again this spring.

OCMF chairman Mark Rowse said: “The initial spark for the endeavour was a family connection between the Ingramses and the violin played by Oxford-born violinist Priya Mitchell (pictured), who founded, and is artistic director of the OCMF. The instrument, made by Ballestieri in 1760, once belonged to an Ingrams cousin, and following an introduction through another cousin, my wife Georgie, the collaboration was born.”

The concerts will be held this year next Thursday and Friday.

The grounds will be open for visitors to enjoy or to picnic in before the performances. The Thursday concert will comprise an unusual setting of Bach’s Goldberg Variations for string trio, performed by Priya Mitchell (violin), Lars-Anders Tomter (viola) and David Cohen (cello). On the Friday night they will be joined by internationally renowned oboist Nicholas Daniel for a programme including Mozart’s Oboe Quartet, and an oboe piece by composer Geoffrey Burgon, whose work will be familiar from many TV programmes, including Granada TV’s famous 1980s production of Brideshead Revisited and the BBC’s adaptation of John Le Carré’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

The concert will also include Johan Halvorsen’s arrangement of a Handel Passacaglia, and music by Schubert and Ravel.

Tickets for the Garsington concerts are available via the OCMF website www.ocmf.net