THE Music Network has announced details of its 1996/97 touring season, involving more than 120 concerts in around 45 venues. There will be 12 tours running through to the end off May, starting with a "Best of Irish" traditional line up in Wexford on Saturday (Tommy and Siobhan Peoples with Paddy and Cyril O'Donoghue). The other traditional tours are scheduled for January (Paddy Glackin) and May (Kevin Burke).

The first classical tour, by pianist Peter Katin, opens later this month (Thursday 26th, in Cahir). He's followed by Royal Danish Brass in November, the Paris based early music ensemble, Lachrimae Consort, whose harpsichordist is Dubliner Emer Buckley (late November), the Schubert Ensemble from London (January/February), the Netherlands based Orlando String Quartet (February), mezzo soprano Lynda Lee (April), and the Offenburger String Trio (May).

Next month, the first of the jazz tours, by Julian and Steve Arguelles, Micu Narunsky and Ronan Guilfoyle, celebrates the music of Thelonius Monk, and the second jazz programme, with the Rory McGuinness Jazz Quartet is scheduled for March.

The burgeoning scale of the Music Network's activity can be gauged from the fact that over the next eight months or so Music Network concerts will average at roughly one every two days.