Yunchan Lim is at the Royal Albert Hall on July 17 – and BBC2 [James Hole]

State school children get so criminally little in the way of music education these days that there’s constant pressure on performing groups to step up and deliver what the system doesn’t. And one group that’s stepped up with a vengeance is the starry vocal consort The Sixteen, which has a new relationship with St James’s Piccadilly and is using the church, July 11, for a whole day of singing events for youngsters and their families.

Called Sounds Sublime, it starts with sessions for the seriously young (ie, under-5s), and runs on through workshops, performing platforms for children’s choirs, and ends with a showcase for The Sixteen’s training academy. Should be a great noise. Maybe even fun. sjp.org.uk/whats-on

• I daresay fun isn’t entirely unknown in the Crouch End Festival Chorus, who have a concert at Holy Trinity Sloane Square, July 11, in which they sing renaissance masterworks re-mixed to incorporate a saxophone quartet. It echoes what the Hilliard Ensemble used to do back in the 90s with Jan Garbarek. And if it worked then, it can again. cefc.org.uk

•  At the Wigmore this week, the engagingly non-standard duo of Lebanese-American tenor Karim Sulayman and Scottish-Japanese guitarist Sean Shibe have a programme that crosses the boundaries of East and West. It includes Britten’s rarely done Songs from the Chinese. And as both performers are known for soulful intensity (it won Sulayman a Grammy) expect to be moved. wigmore-hall.org.uk

• Austrian mezzo Anja Mittermuller isn’t such a big name, but with pianist Richard Fu she won the Wigmore’s prestigious International Song Competition in 2024, and their recital at the Hall, July 12, is a happy consequences. Featuring Brahms, Schumann, Chopin and Mendelssohn, it’s also livestreamed on the Wigmore website. With free access! wigmore-hall.org.uk

• The Royal Opera really loves director Richard Jones, perhaps because of his direct, cost-conscious style. It’s just been running his new production of I Puritani (nothing much to look at but spectacularly sung); it recently revived his staging of Samson et Dalila. And now, July 11-25, it revives his punchy 2017 La Boheme. Given that Boheme takes place in deepest winter with the characters complaining of the cold (remember Mimi’s tiny frozen hand) it may feel odd to see it in a summer heatwave. But think of it as a cold shower, psychologically. And there’s the attraction of Freddie de Tommaso as Rodolfo, whose Italianate sobs in the death scene should send a welcome chill down the spine. rbo.org.uk

• More operatic big guns, July 12, when Tony Pappano conducts the second of two LSO concert performances of Tristan und Isolde at the Barbican. As before, his Tristan is the Wagner heavyweight Clay Tilley. The Isolde, Sara Jakubiak. But the orchestra will probably be the star turn. barbican.org.uk

• I’ve left it till last – the elephant in the room – but the Proms start July 17, with an inevitable grand gesture: the disarmingly young, deservedly megastar pianist Yunchan Lim playing Ravel’s G Major Concerto at the Royal Albert Hall. If you can’t get tickets (there are standing places, £10 on the night, but expect long queues) it’s televised on BBC2. Then there are two months of concerts – some fabulous, some not – running through to mid-September. Exhaustive, blow by blow coverage on this page as from next week. www.bbc.co.uk/proms