CHAPTER House Choir is to perform the world premiere of three new commissions written for the York choir in 2014.

Formed in 1965 by a group of York Minster Songmen and their wives, the amateur chamber choir has always been committed to commissioning new music, and this year's trio will begin with a Gabriel Jackson piece on April 21.

Written in memory of soprano Clare Latham, who sang with the choir, it will be sung in a joint performance by the Chapter House Choir and Coro Chamber Choir at St Luke’s Church in Chelsea, London.

All profits from this concert will be shared between Macmillan Cancer Support and St Leonard’s Hospice in York, the charities that supported Clare and her family during her illness.

“I feel very honoured to have been asked to write a piece in memory of Clare Latham," says composer Gabriel.

"The text we've chosen, by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, has a beautiful and very appropriate musicality and I hope that my setting of these tender, loving words is as much a celebration of Clare’s life as it is a commemoration of her passing.”

In July 2014, Yorkshire will play host to the start of the Tour de France, complemented by a 100-day Yorkshire-wide Cultural Festival in the lead-up to the event.

Chapter House Choir will mark Le Grand Départ in a jubilant choral celebration, collaborating with choirs from along the route of Stages 1 and 2 of the Tour to premiere a new commission by Alexander L’Estrange at York Minster on June 28. A massed choir of around 400 singers will perform Song Cycle: Vive la Vélorution! , championing the joys of the outdoors, the Yorkshire countryside and the history of cycling.

Finally, on November 8, the choir will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War with a new work by Judith Bingham, as part of the For The Fallen concert at St Olave’s Church in York, where the third world premiere will be accompanied by music and readings.

Musical director Stephen Williams says: "We're honoured to have three of this country’s leading contemporary composers to be creating new commissions for us this year. To be able to give three world premieres in less than 12 months is very exciting and we look forward to sharing this new music with our audiences.”

Tomorrow at 7.30pm, the Chapter House Choir will give the northern premiere of Bob Chilcott’s St John Passion as part of York Minster’s Festival of Passions, bringing this 21st Century retelling of the Passiontide story to a Yorkshire audience for the first time.

Chilcott’s setting of words from the Gospel of St John provides a dramatic yet optimistic retelling of the Passion, and also includes meditations based on English poems from the 13th to early 17th centuries.

The choir will be joined in the Quire of the Minster by guest soloists Christopher O’Gorman, tenor, and Chris Thornton-Holmes, baritone, and augmented by other York choral singers for the well-known hymns which intersperse the story and are set to new, original melodies.

Tickets for the London concert on April 21 are available at £10 on the door, as well as online at facebook.com/CoroChamberChoir. Tickets for tonight, June 28 and November 8 are on sale through the York Minster box office, 01904 557208 or boxoffice.yorkminster.org