THE 2014 Concerts in the West season kicks off in fine style with a concert by Polish mezzo-soprano Hanna Hipp and the highly accomplished Neapolitan pianist Emma Abbate, at Bridport Arts Centre on Friday at 11am.

The musical programme for the Bridport coffee concert will include: Eight Polish Songs by Francis Poulenc, Luciano Berio’s Four Popular Songs; Benjamin Britten’s A Charm of Lullabies Op.41 and Manuel de Falla’s Seven Spanish Folk Songs.

Hipp is a graduate of the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House in 2013. For the 2013/14 season she will be making her debut with the Turku Music Festival in Finland.

Other performances include Suzuki in Scottish Opera’s Madame Butterfly, the Glyndebourne Festival as Flora in La Traviata, the title part in Handel’s Solomon with the Oxford Bach Choir and London Mozart Players, recitals at Opera de Lille.

Emma Abate is a top vocal coach, and a professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She has performed in duo recitals in Salzburg, Lisbon, Naples, Ischia, Koscierzyna, Sorrento, the Wigmore Hall London, St George’s Bristol and the Aldeburgh Festival.

n Tickets are £10. Call the box office on 01308 424204 or bridport-arts.com