Lucy Armstrong [Nina Kuttler]

FEMALE composers get a better deal these days than in the past, with more encouragement, and more performances. But that’s thanks to the efforts of agenda-changing groups like Arch Sinfonia, an orchestra that does things differently and will be doing so at Cecil Sharp House, Camden Town, on June 29.

The name “Arch” signals efforts to build bridges between listeners and players – which this concert literally puts into practice by inviting audience members to sit in among the orchestra and feel the thrill of music-making in surround sound.

As for the music, everything has been composed by women, across several centuries, including a symphony by Emilie Mayer (a contemporary of Beethoven, surprisingly successful in her own day though forgotten afterwards) and a new Saxophone Concerto by one of today’s names to watch, Lucy Armstrong.

Currently composer-in-residence at Glyndebourne, Armstrong’s output so far has focused on the hinterlands between opera and musical theatre (her big influence is Stephen Sondheim), and includes a collaborative football opera for Garsington. So a Saxophone Concerto is something different – though she says it’s been planned like opera, with the sax as a protagonist in the musical narrative. And as an instrument that crosses genres, it will feed into a sound-world not so far from Broadway. Should be interesting. Details: archsinfonia.co.uk

• One of America’s most prominent female composers is Libby Larsen, who also writes operas and has one playing June 28-July 3 in a student show at the Royal College of Music. Called Barnum’s Bird, it tells the story of Jenny Lind, the so-called “Swedish Nightingale” whose 19th-century stardom owed much to the mass-marketing efforts of promoter PT Barnum. As Lind went on to become the college’s first ever female professor, it has on-site relevance. And as Larsen’s music doesn’t often cross the pond, this production is an opportunity worth seizing. rcm.ac.uk

Another famous 19th-century visitor to London was Wagner who, in 1855, spent time in Marylebone. He’ll be there again, in spirit, when the Marylebone Festival performs his Wesendonck Lieder and Siegfried Idyll on June 24 at the Parish Church, with an orchestra led by rising conductor Bertie Baigent. Details: stmarylebone.org

• The Birmingham-based Ex Cathedra rank among Britain’s elite choirs, and they bring a programme of summer-related music to St Martin in the Fields on June 27: a comprehensive survey from 16th-century plainchant to Cliff Richard (who older readers might remember taking his summer holiday on a double-decker bus, singing at the wheel). stmartin-in-the-fields.org

• Finally, NW Londoners who like music on their doorstep will want to know that Australian pianist Angelo Villani returns to Rosslyn Hill Chapel NW3 with a programme of Janacek and Tchaikovsky, June 24 (angelovillani.com); Camden Choir & Hampstead Chamber Choir join forces for an evening of amorous choral works at Emmanuel Church NW6, June 24 (hampsteadchamberchoir.org); and not to be forgotten, the Proms at St Jude’s run June 24-July 2, as I profiled last week, launching with star violinist Jennifer Pike playing the Mendelssohn Concerto. promsatstjudes.org.uk