HARVEST Festival-goers in an Exmoor village will be treated to a performance by young violin virtuoso Anthony Knight on Sunday (October 8).

Seventeen-year-old Anthony, from Minehead, will play pieces by Telemann and Bach in a 15-minute set at the end of the 6 pm service in All Saints’Church, Wootton Courtenay.

A retiring collection will be held for the Disasters Emergency Committee’s (DEC) Ukraine Appeal before parishioners enjoy a harvest supper in the village hall.

Anthony, who attends Taunton School, has already performed 63 recitals in churches and care homes since first playing in Wootton Courtenay last October and has raised more than £12,000 for the DEC Ukraine Appeal.

He is studying A-level music and leads Taunton School’s symphony orchestra and also a string quartet.

During the summer he toured Europe, giving performances in cities including Brussels, Frankfurt, Bern, Milan, Venice, Vienna, Prague, Berlin, and Cologne.

Anthony’s fund-raising efforts have seen him honoured with a string of awards, including the High Sheriff’s Award, the Sandy Padgett Pride of Somerset Youth Award, and the Somerset Anne Frank Youth Award for ‘demonstrating our core value of working within conflict resolution and social inclusion’.

He visited the House of Commons to receive a Young Achiever Award, ‘Celebrating Future Leaders In Service Of Others’, which was organised by Universal Peace Federation UK and hosted by MP Dean Russell, and Minehead and District Lions’ Club presented him with its Young Leaders in Service Gold Award.

His father, Paul Knight, said that Anthony hoped to inspire other young musicians ‘to use their talents to make a positive difference in the world’.