A CENTENARIAN who still teaches music was treated to a serenade in her sitting room.

Violinist Helena Ruinard gave a private concert for 101-year-old Dorothy Walker at her North Yorkshire home.

The performance was part of the Swaledale Festival's Concert in Your Kitchen project, which takes music to people who might not be able to get to performances during the two-week festival.

Mrs Walker moved to Bellerby, near Leyburn, 80 years ago, shortly after her 21st birthday, to teach infants at the village school.

She later took over teaching music to the whole school and entered many pupils successfully in the Wensleydale Tournament of Song, where they won prizes for singing, recitation and dialect.

Mrs Walker led, and conducted, a ladies' choir and continues to teach the piano to children.

Miss Ruinard, who studied at Selwyn College, Cambridge, and the Royal College of Music, plays with the King's Camerata, which is appearing at the Swaledale Festival, Opera East and the Brandenburg Sinfonia.

Like Mrs Walker, she also teaches music to children, particularly those aged five to 14.

Miss Ruinard is apprentice animateur with the Spitalfields Festival, in London, and has played with the Ulster Orchestra, the City of London Sinfonia, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Welsh Opera orchestra.

Following the performance, Mrs Walker said: "I thought it was marvellous. I thoroughly enjoyed it and Helena played beautifully.

"It was something I will remember for a long, long time. It was so beautiful. Her interpretation of the music was so marvellous."

Throughout the festival, musicians and singers travel around to provide free live entertainment for people in their own homes if they could not otherwise attend a performance. Residents were nominated by friends and relatives for the scheme funded by the Arts Council.

The Swaledale Festival, which began on Saturday, runs until June 10 at community venues, churches and village halls across Swaledale and Wensleydale.

Programmes and tickets are available from the festival office at Hudson House, Reeth, on 01748-880019 or on www.swaledale-festival.org.uk