THE York Spring Festival of New Music kicks off on Wednesday with a night of Middle Eastern music at the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York.

The Lyre Ensemble present selections from their album The Flood, complemented by composer Morag Galloway and singer Merit Ariane Stephanos’s new collaboration, Swimming Between Shores, at 7.30pm.

On Thursday, student-run contemporary music group The Chimera Ensemble, below, perform a 7.30pm programme of a new work by Richard Barrett, Salvatore Sciarrino’s Infinito Nero and Rebecca Saunders’ Molly’s Song 3, Shades Of Crimson, in the Lyons again.

Next Friday brings a full day at the National Centre for Early Music in Walmgate. At 6.30pm, international soloist Geert Callaert premieres Marc Yeats’s The Magic Control Of Rain, a 45-minute piano cycle written in memory of Scottish composer Morris Pert.

The day begins at 1pm with an improvised percussion performance by Beau Stocker and live electronics from Ben Eyes, and it ends with a 9.30pm concert by PercusSing, a dynamic new soprano and marimba duo formed by University of York graduates Ana Beard Fernandez and Zoe Craven. They present premieres of Roger Marsh’s Walking Away and Martin Scheuregger’s Miniature, along with new works by Kirsty Devaney, Stef Conner, Morag Galloway, Emma-Ruth Richards and Jonathan Brigg.

The festival will run until May 3. Tickets are on sale at york.ac.uk/concerts, on 01904 322439 or via email to boxoffice@york.ac.uk