Live choice

Paul Riley picks the month's best concert and opera highlights in the UK

- Paul Riley

Aurora Orchestra

Saffron Hall, Saffron Walden,

1 May

Web: saffronhall.com

The wide-open spaces of Copland's Appalachian Spring and gritty edginess of Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from West Side Story bookend an American road trip with conductor Nicholas Collon at the wheel. It takes in music by Caroline Shaw and, with pianist Tom Poster, Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. A film specially shot on location by John Franck accompanies Ives's Three Places in New England.

Manchester Collective

St George's, Bristol,

3 May

Web: stgeorgesbristol.co.uk Guitarist Sean Shibe enjoys startling juxtapositions, so he should feel at home in his debut with Manchester Collective. New York composer Kelly Moran and Emily Hall have both produced new works for a tour that contrasts John Cage and David Lang. Lending Baroque perspective is the much purloined La Folia.

Solem Quartet

Mill Hill Chapel, Leeds,

3 May

Web: leedsconcertseason.co.uk Having recently given the UK premiere of Jonny Greenwood's suite from his 2007 film score for There will be Blood, the Solems revisit it in the company of the string quartet by Dutch pianistcomposer Henriëtte Bosmans, whose Jewish background caused a hiatus to her career during the Nazi occupation. They end with Steve Reich's potently germane Different Trains.

Ailish Tynan and Christopher Glyn

Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, York,

3 May